Just two weeks and a few days remain in the Big Ten regular season, but the Buckeyes still haven’t found a foe capable of handing them a home loss.
Ohio State has come out on top in all 11 games it has played at the Schottenstein Center, and by the end of Monday night, the Buckeyes will try to push that streak to 13 wins in a row on their home floor. The current streak is already noteworthy, as no Ohio State team has equaled such a run in the better part of a decade, and the Buckeyes will have a chance to make it even more historic in the coming weeks.
Now that the Buckeyes have played exactly as many home games as they have away from home (including two neutral-site games), holding a 16-6 record overall with seven games still to play before the postseason, there’s no better time to break down what has led to Ohio State’s unwavering success at the Schott.
Here’s 11 facts, stats and notes about the Buckeyes’ 11-game win streak at home.
Longest home win streak since 2014-15
The last time Ohio State had a home win streak this long was a full seven seasons ago, when D’Angelo Russell, Jae’Sean Tate and company rattled off 11 straight victories in Columbus to open the 2014-15 season. Unlike this season, one of those games didn’t take place at the Schottenstein Center, as Ohio State notched a 97-55 win over North Carolina A&T at Nationwide Arena on Dec. 17, 2014.
The Buckeyes’ first home loss in 2014 came on Dec. 30, a 71-65 defeat to Iowa, as 13 of Ohio State’s first 15 games that year took place at home. Ohio State went on to win seven more home games in a row after that before losing the regular-season finale to sixth-ranked Wisconsin in lopsided fashion.
Only B1G team undefeated at home
There is no shortage of legitimate home-court advantages around the Big Ten. Ohio State can attest to that fact having lost to Indiana, Purdue and Rutgers on the road this season. Still, no other team in the conference is undefeated in its backyard other than the Buckeyes. The Boilermakers are the only Big Ten team that has exactly one loss on their home floor, while the rest of the clubs around the conference have suffered multiple defeats at home. According to the Big Ten, Ohio State has just the eighth-best average attendance in the conference, but that hasn’t mattered much when it comes to wins and losses.
Seven double-digit wins
All but four of Ohio State’s wins at the Schottenstein Center have come by at least 10 points. On the non-conference side of things, Ohio State ran over Niagara, Bowling Green, Towson and IUPUI by an average of 24.5 points, although the Buckeyes’ 46-point win over IUPUI might skew that stat just a little. All fell to Ohio State by double-digits, though, and so did Big Ten foes Wisconsin, Maryland and most recently Minnesota on Tuesday.
Akron, Duke, Northwestern and Penn State all kept things tight with the Buckeyes until the end, losing by nine points or fewer, but no Ohio State opponent has managed to do that at the Schott since the Nittany Lions on Jan. 16.
Only two games against ranked teams
Regardless of the caliber of opponent on a nightly basis, Ohio State’s home résumé would be rather impressive. But the Buckeyes’ record at the Schott has been bolstered a bit by the lack of top-flight competition that have tested them on their home court thus far. Ohio State’s wins over then-No. 1 Duke and then-No. 22 Wisconsin still hold up as the Buckeyes’ best of the year, but those were the only two ranked opponents Ohio State has taken on at home this season. Barring changes to the AP poll over the next couple weeks, the Buckeyes will only take on one more ranked opponent at home, with No. 19 Michigan State coming to town March 3.
Nearly eight more points per game at home
The disparity in scoring between Ohio State’s home and away appearances this season have been drastic. The Buckeyes have averaged 74.5 points per game overall this season, good for fourth-best in the Big Ten, but that number has been buoyed by the 78.1 points Ohio State has averaged at home. On the road, the Buckeyes have scored just 70.8 points per game. Ohio State has scored 80 or more points at home six times this season, while it has done so on just one occasion outside of Columbus.
Scoring struggles for opponents
Opposing offenses have had a much harder time scoring on the Buckeyes at home than they have in other settings. Ohio State’s competition has averaged just 62.3 points per game in the Schottenstein Center this season, while the Buckeyes’ foes have tallied 70.4 on average when Ohio State travels. Only three opposing teams have even hit the 70-point mark in Columbus so far this season, while the Buckeyes have given up at least that many points six times on the road.
Liddell shoots 15 percent better in Columbus
Ohio State’s star forward has only averaged two more points per game at home (20.9) than he has on the road this season (18.9), but that stat alone does not tell the whole story. If you need evidence that E.J. Liddell is considerably more comfortable playing in Columbus, look no further than his shooting percentage, which has been nearly 15 percent better when games take place at the Schottenstein Center.
Liddell is knocking down 59.1 percent of his shots at home this season, while that figure falls all the way to 44.9 percent away from home. The difference is dramatic from 3-point range as well, where Liddell is hitting 45.3 percent in home games and 34.1 percent in all other games.
Twice as many points for Key
Besides Liddell, another Buckeye who has benefitted tremendously from home-court advantage has been Zed Key. Ohio State’s starting center is its third-leading scorer this season, averaging 9.1 points per game, but his home and away splits in the scoring department have been drastically different.
Key is averaging nearly twice as many points at home as he is on the road, putting up 11.9 at the Schottenstein Center to just 6.3 in all other gyms. A big scoring night from Key can often be an X-factor for the Buckeyes, and as illustrated by those numbers, it’s happened a lot more frequently on Ohio State’s home floor.
Team shooting lights out at the Schott
If Ohio State only played at home, its team field-goal percentage would be the third-highest in the country. The Buckeyes, whose 47.9 percent mark in all games this season ranks 21st in the nation, have knocked down 50.6 percent of their shots at the Schottenstein Center. On the road, that number drops to 45.3 percent. The difference is slightly less pronounced from the 3-point line, where Ohio State has shot 39.5 percent at home and 36.6 percent on the road, but the discrepancy is clear nonetheless.
Foes hitting 39.4 percent from the floor
Unsurprisingly, Ohio State’s opponents don’t shoot as well at the Schott as they have when the Buckeyes are traveling in 2021-22. However, the gap isn’t quite as big as the Buckeyes’ own shooting percentages might suggest. Ohio State’s competition has shot 39.4 percent in Columbus this season, and that number climbs up only to 42.9 percent when Ohio State is away or on a neutral floor. Ohio State’s opponents have actually shot better from 3-point range at the Schott, where they have knocked down 33.9 percent of their attempts to just 30.2 percent in all other matchups with the Buckeyes.
Could be first 12-0 start in eight years
With one more win on Saturday against Iowa, Ohio State would become the first Buckeye team to start a season 12-0 at home since 2013-14. Aaron Craft’s final Ohio State team won its first 15 games home or away to start the year, peaking at No. 3 in the AP Top 25 before losing its next four games in a row and eventually falling out of the rankings altogether.
To find a scarlet and gray team that started off with more than 12 home wins in a row, you’d have to go back to 2011-12, when Thad Matta and company rattled off 17 straight victories at the Schottenstein Center before losing one. Ohio State would hit 13 if it beats Iowa on Saturday and Indiana on Monday.
