Ohio State could have crumbled against Michigan.
At the 3:58 mark, Wolverine star center Hunter Dickinson hit a jumper inside that cut the Buckeyes’ lead to six points, 55-49. The scenario seemed all too familiar. Just three nights earlier, Ohio State held an eight-point lead on the road at Rutgers with 3:48 to play. The Buckeyes watched it slowly dissipate the rest of the way until the Scarlet Knights came out victorious in what was a heavily criticized end-of-game stretch on all fronts for Chris Holtmann and company.
But things didn’t play out that way on Saturday.
Instead, the Buckeyes closed out a Michigan team chock full of talent that had just blown out No. 3 Purdue by 24 points on the same floor just two nights prior. No offensive cold spell, series of defensive lapses or poor free-throw shooting led to a late-game scare. Ohio State simply continued to show why it was the superior team, no matter what the circumstance or where the game was taking place, and cruised to a 68-57 win in Ann Arbor.
“We responded from obviously a gut punch the other night, and responded like I felt like this team (could),” Chris Holtmann said after the win. “And I didn’t know if we’d win or not, but I knew that we’d respond the right way because of the leadership of our group. I thought Kyle (Young) and E.J. (Liddell) and Justin (Ahrens) and Jamari (Wheeler) really led this group the last couple days, it’s become a player-owned team, which is what you want, and I’m proud of them.”
It started with improvement on defense for Ohio State. While the Buckeyes ranked fifth in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency prior to Saturday’s tip-off, they also ranked 128th in adjusted defensive efficiency, which was lower than any team in KenPom’s overall top 50.
Last Wednesday, Rutgers scored points every time it touched the ball through the final 3:07 of game time. Before a meaningless 3-pointer from Caleb Houstan in the final seconds Saturday, Michigan scored just two points in the final three minutes of play against Ohio State.
“Coaches challenged us on the defensive side of things,” Cedric Russell said. “The end of that Rutgers game, the last four minutes we didn’t get a stop and the result was an L. We didn't want that to happen again tonight. They were really just challenging us this whole week on the defensive side of the ball, and tonight we responded.”
Russell took a key charge with eight minutes to play and dove on multiple loose balls to contribute to the defensive effort, but Liddell said the Buckeyes’ improved mentality on that end of the floor started with his own shift in energy ahead of the game.
“We couldn’t get a single stop in the last four minutes of that (Rutgers) game. Felt like tonight we came out and did a great job on the defensive end, and it started with me,” Liddell said. “My effort is contagious, and I feel like I gotta keep getting better on that side of the ball. And as I keep doing that, we’re gonna keep getting better.”
From the 2:29 mark until the final 20 seconds, Ohio State forced Michigan into six straight misses from the field, and it wasn’t just one Wolverine the Buckeyes had to shut down. Four different starters took shots during that stretch for Michigan, but none of them could score while the Buckeyes continued to pull away.
Liddell said the coaching staff didn’t pull on any parallels from the Rutgers performance to motivate the team late, but it was something he couldn’t help but think about as the Buckeyes got dialed in on defense.
“They didn’t say anything about it, but I definitely thought about it. I was in the huddle just saying, ‘Get a stop, get a stop,’” Liddell said. “Honestly, if we would’ve gotten a single stop in that game, we could’ve possibly won. I wasn’t trying to think about it too much, I just knew what it took to go out there and get a victory.”
While the Buckeyes placed emphasis on their defensive efforts, the juxtaposition in offensive play late between Ohio State’s past two games was also hard to ignore. The Buckeyes didn’t score at all in the final 3:48 against Rutgers, hitting just one of their final 12 shots and missing seven straight to end the game.
Against Michigan, Ohio State hit four of its final five shots to end the game and went 9-for-11 from the free throw line in the final three minutes. Liddell went 11-for-11 from the charity stripe by himself on Saturday and finished with 28 points, 12 more than he had against Rutgers.
Chris Holtmann believes E.J. Liddell should be getting more recognition for his stellar season.
— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) February 13, 2022
Start talking about E.J. as a player of the year in this league. He is deserving. He is deserving to be in that conversation. pic.twitter.com/I7N9eFR29E
Holtmann and the Buckeyes have seen both ends of the spectrum when it comes to handling late-game situations this year, but Ohio State played well enough on both sides of the floor to make sure they weren’t on the losing side of that equation for a second straight game on Saturday.
“I’ve been doing this long enough, you know that games can turn. People don’t realize that three-and-a-half minutes is a really long time,” Holtmann said. “You’re talking about as many as eight, nine, 10 more possessions in a game. People from the outside don’t always get that, but if you’ve been in the arena, you understand how long a college basketball game is at three and a half to go.”
Ohio State can allow itself a slight sigh of relief after bouncing back from last week’s debacle in such quick and impressive fashion, but Holtmann is careful not to put too much stock into Saturday’s performance when projecting forward to future games. With five games to squeeze into the next 13 days as Ohio State makes up two previously postponed games, the Buckeyes must throw themselves into preparation to ready for a frenzied pace down the stretch.
“Listen, when we play them on Senior Night, we’re gonna have to play well. We’re gonna have to play well on Tuesday at home versus a good Minnesota team,” Holtmann said. “So I think that’s our focus right now is getting better with film on Sunday, getting ready on Sunday and Monday for a Minnesota team that is a good team. Bottom line.
“I don’t think big picture, I just think stay in the moment and stay working on getting better.”
