INDIANAPOLIS – The familiar name of Evan Turner popped up on Chris Holtmann’s phone in the immediate aftermath. He caught enough of the text message from the former Ohio State star – whose Big Ten Tournament championship game scoring record Duane Washington Jr. had just broken in a loss – to know the general premise. Turner wanted the fourth-year head coach to know that the loss didn’t diminish what he thought of the Buckeyes’ performance in their four-day run to the conference tournament final.
“We work really hard to make guys like that proud, and I believe that was some of his sentiment,” Holtmann said. “That means a lot to us.”
Holtmann delivered that exact message to his team in their Lucas Oil Stadium locker room, speaking to a group that included “a lot of emotional guys and a lot of emotional coaches.”
“They carry the weight of making every former Buckeye proud, every Buckeye fan, everybody who loves this university,” Holtmann said. “Listen, we came close to a championship and it's exceedingly disappointing. But what I'm not disappointed in is their resolve and their fight and their effort.”
Nor is Turner. Nor are other former players. Nor are the vast majority of Ohio State fans.
Those outside of the program watched as this team toughed out a second-round game against Minnesota, holding off a late charge to win, 79-75. They saw the Buckeyes close Purdue out in overtime for an 87-78 victory in the quarterfinals. They mostly eyed the Michigan matchup in the semifinals as what would likely end the postseason run but watched as Ohio State topped its rival, 68-67. Then, they saw Holtmann’s squad rally back from a 37-20 deficit to force overtime before ultimately losing, 91-88, as Illinois celebrated its first Big Ten tournament championship since 2005 with what amounted to a boisterous home crowd at a neutral site in attendance.
Ohio State simultaneously was maddening – turning all four games into high-wire acts – and damn good.
“Some of these halves were the best halves of our season. They just were,” Holtmann said. “I think we can build on that.”
Those inside the program dumped everything, both physically and emotionally, into the four-game stretch. And now, after coming three points short, they’re charged with processing what just happened and responding.
Mere minutes after the buzzer of the loss sounded, CBS began rattling off the NCAA tournament bracket. Inside the very locker room where Holtmann spoke to a torn-up yet prideful team, the Buckeyes learned their postseason run had earned them a No. 2 seed and a first-round showdown with Summit League champion Oral Roberts.
For 96 hours, they rode the proverbial emotional roller-coaster. So, in some weird way, it made sense that they’d have to process both losing out on their hopes of a Big Ten title and learning of their March Madness path in the same hour.
“Most definitely, I'm proud of my team. Most definitely, I'm hurt because we lost and I wanted to win a Big Ten title,” CJ Walker said. “That was a dream for us at the beginning of the season. That was a big goal for us. We lost four games ending the regular season. We came to the Big Ten tournament ready to play. I feel like we played with a lot of confidence, really aggressive, playing the way that we know how to play. We beat a lot of really good teams. It was four hard days in a row going out there, playing as hard as possible each and every day against really good teams. I'm really proud of my team. I don't regret anything that happened today. We fought, we stayed together, we stayed connected.”
“I said before the Big Ten tournament that that's what we needed to do. I feel like that's what we did throughout this tournament. We're just getting prepared for March Madness, trying to bounce back and go win a national title.”
Ohio State will spend the coming days preparing for Oral Roberts. Walker said he didn’t know a thing about the program, the university or the team, and he didn’t care to spend too much time thinking about the Golden Eagles in the hour after the Buckeyes had lost. Most of his focus, at the time, was on the loss. As he spoke, he mentioned he still hadn’t felt the emotional drain he expected to sink in a few hours after putting so much of himself into the past four days’ worth of games.
Right after the run came to an end, he didn't want to think much further ahead than he had to.
“We had a lot of emotional guys and a lot of emotional coaches, and honestly I wouldn't expect anything else of this group,” Holtmann said. “I just wouldn't have. I think they had real high-level belief in what we could be, and they didn't come for anything other than a championship.”
For that exact reason, Ohio State’s players and coaches exited the playing surface hastily after losing to Illinois, went back to the locker room and did their best to regroup.
Yes, they were disappointed. Yes, they were drained. But they were also proud. Proud and left wanting more.
Luckily for the Buckeyes, they won’t have to leave the state of Indiana for what’s next.
“Now, we certainly had some errors and some things that we've got to do better, but I don't think anybody would look back and say we didn't play some of our best basketball. I think you try to hang onto that,” Holtmann said. “They need a little bit of time. It's whatever time it is. They need a little bit of time to deal with this. I'm confident we'll have a resilient approach, but I guess you don't know for sure until I get a chance to spend some time around them. I think they know what's in front of them in terms of what's in front of them is get rest and get ready to go for Oral Roberts.”
