From Ohio State’s bench, Eugene Brown III pulled down his mask to yell, “No foul!” Beside him, Jimmy Sotos held his hands high into the air to mimic what his teammates needed to do.
CJ Walker had just sunk a pair of free throws with 17.6 seconds remaining to give Ohio State an 88-85 lead on Notre Dame. As he slowly backpedaled, getting down into a defensive stance, he had three of the other four starters on the court with him. The fifth guy? Musa Jallow.
With Nate Laszewski – a 6-foot-10, 225-pound stretch five who took four 3s per game last season – playing center, head coach Chris Holtmann determined that he wanted Jallow in the game for his defensive prowess and switchability. That move paid off.
Laszewski set a screen which allowed Jallow to switch onto Prentiss Hubb, the lead guard and ball-handler on the fateful possession. Jallow stayed in front of him with a wide base, quick feet and his hands up, disallowing a path to the basket and forcing an off-balance Hubb to give it up after failing to get around the redshirt junior wing. Walker deflected Hubb’s attempted pass and the ball hit Laszewski’s knee, careening out of bounds with 2.1 seconds left.
Jallow flexed both of his arms and yelled for everybody to hear.
Buckeyes ball. Buckeyes victory.
“We were switching, at least I was switching most of the screens for pretty much the whole game,” Jallow said. “We knew they had to get a 3 up, and I knew that Hubb was going to come off aggressive. So I just tried to play token D, stay in front of him and make sure he didn't get a shot up. Walker made a huge play deflecting that ball off of him. Walk's super aggressive on the ball and that gets me going, too.”
Jallow’s contributions throughout Tuesday evening weren’t exactly what Holtmann had in mind entering the Big Ten/ACC Challenge showdown. He wondered whether he’d even have the fourth-year from Bloomington, Indiana, come off the bench.
Jallow had missed the prior two games with Achilles soreness after making his grand return to the court in the opener following him missing the entirety of the 2019-20 season due to multiple ankle surgeries. Talking to the media on Monday, even though it was clear things were trending upward for Jallow, Holtmann called him a game-time decision. Behind the scenes, he’d given Jallow a simple message: “Just be ready. We'll see what the game looks like. Just be ready to play a role.”
As it turns out, the Buckeyes needed him for more than spot playing time, and to his credit Jallow was ready. They required 22 minutes from him in his return to the court, during which he scored seven points, grabbed a pair of rebounds and had a steal.
“I did not anticipate playing Musa much tonight,” Holtmann said. “I wasn't even sure I was going to play him. But this game required his defensive IQ and his ability to switch and play and guard different people. We don't win the game without Musa Jallow tonight, obviously. He's got to keep building on that, and hopefully we can keep him healthy.”
Jallow secured a steal with under nine minutes remaining in the game that led to the Walker’s pair of free throws that gave the Buckeyes their long-awaited lead. Two minutes later, he converted an and-one on a drive to the hoop, finishing a layup through contact to extend his team’s lead to five.
Holtmann inserted him into the game with 13:48 remaining and Ohio State trailing by eight points and never took him out. He rode Jallow the rest of the way to the 90-85 victory.
For somebody who’s had rough injury luck over the last year and a half, Tuesday’s game was a long time coming.
“It's just been up and down,” Jallow said. “I've just been telling myself to take it one day at a time and just be ready for whatever it takes. Sitting out a year and going through the recovery process for my injury, you never take anything for granted. It's just one day at a time and let things come and just go with the flow.”
So, how did it feel for Jallow to not only be out there but to also play a key role in a road win?
“Weird. It feels really weird to be playing,” Jallow said, “but it's awesome being out there with my guys.”
