Felix Okpara was upfront and direct on Tuesday.
While criticism of Chris Holtmann has grown with each successive loss, the freshman center made it clear that there’s plenty of blame to go around for Ohio State’s on-court personnel.
The Buckeyes haven’t been outclassed in all 11 of their losses in the past 12 games. Nine of them have been single-digit defeats, and six have come by two-possession margins. But in crucial moments in which the game hangs in the balance, Okpara said players are either trying to do too much or not giving enough effort.
“Some games I see guys trying to press, trying to get the big shot instead of taking it one point, one possession at a time,” Okpara said during an interview session at the Schottenstein Center Tuesday. “And also sometimes we, the players, we’ve seen guys just like playing relaxed and pretty much – I won’t say giving up – but just playing a little bit relaxed. We’ll be right there but we just gotta give a little bit more punch. But we just play relaxed and sometimes rush our shots.”
In two of the last five games, though, Ohio State’s hardly had a chance to win in the final minutes. The Buckeyes were blown out by 16 against Indiana on Jan. 28, and in their last outing at home on Sunday, Ohio State mustered their fewest points in 27 years in a 62-41 loss to Michigan State.
"We just need more dog mentality. That kill mentality. We gotta go out there and try to do what’s best for the team and try to play hard and smart. I feel like we’ve been lacking that."– Felix Okpara
Okpara finds those recent results particularly disturbing when assessing the current state of affairs in the program.
“It’s just the way we’re losing. I think that’s the issue right now,” Okpara said. “If you play hard, play tough, you lose by two points or a point and we gave it our all, we get ready for the next game. But I feel like the way we’re losing now, it’s just not us, like what the coaching staff said. The team I watched last year. So I know we’re better than this. … I can’t really name the games, but like the last three, four games. I’m not gonna sit here and call out names, but I feel like we just need more guys to step up. Hopefully they’re gonna do it. We still got eight more games. Hopefully we’ll get it done.”
There’s been no shortage of speculation surrounding what’s gone wrong with the Buckeyes and what they’re lacking amid a disastrous stretch. Okpara said confidence isn’t the answer, but that the team is missing the edge required to come up victorious in gritty games in Big Ten play.
“I wouldn’t really say confidence. I would just say we just need more dog mentality. That kill mentality,” Okpara said. “We gotta go out there and try to do what’s best for the team and try to play hard and smart. I feel like we’ve been lacking that for the past five games now. But we’re gonna find it out.”
Okpara isn’t accustomed to losing games. During his senior season at Link Academy in Branson, Missouri, the Nigeria native only lost one game. Many of the four Buckeye freshmen who play pivotal roles for Ohio State in their first year share a similar story.
The stark contrast in team success that they’ve experienced in 2022-23 makes a tumultuous season all the more difficult to handle. After all, they’ve never had to before.
“We’ve been talking a lot. My high school, I came from a really winning high school. I lost just one game my senior year,” Okpara said. “I’m gonna speak for myself; it’s kind of weird losing (six) games in a row. Sometimes we, freshmen, watch the game over and over and try to see where we made mistakes or where the team made mistakes and try to come up with solutions. The only answer to that is just playing tougher, like the coaching staff said. We just gotta play tougher, fight through adversity. Some games we’re gonna be down 10, down 15, but we can always come back.”
The Buckeyes haven’t struggled throughout the entire season. Entering their second game in January, Ohio State held a 10-3 record, the No. 24 rank in the AP poll and possessed wins over its first two Big Ten opponents. Since then, the wheels fell off entirely and the Buckeyes now face the likelihood of missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.
Okpara said the difference in the quality of play that separates those two periods is easy to see from his perspective.
“I would say the first part of the season we had guys hungry, they had something to prove,” Okpara said. “But now I feel like, I would say mental toughness. We’ve lost a couple of games and guys have just like – it’s frustrating, guys are getting mad, pissed. But I feel like you got to have the same mentality coming into every game, trying to win.”
Okpara isn’t on an island when it comes to his opinions on the team, although he expressed them more earnestly than many of his teammates in recent weeks. Buckeye captain Zed Key said he agrees with Okpara’s assessment that Ohio State hasn’t displayed a “dog mentality” over the past several weeks.
Key said the commitment to defense, or lack thereof, is a telltale sign.
“He’s right. Guys need to value defense a little bit more, get stops, because defense wins games,” Key said. “Obviously we’ve been struggling in that department. But every day we’re trying to get better, work on our defense, work on our positioning and get better from there.”
But as Sunday’s contest proved, the issues are on both sides of the ball. Ohio State needs more effort from every angle, and from Okpara’s point of view, that starts with the Buckeye players and the motivation they take with them to every game.
“I would say some games, there’s some games you don’t wanna play, some games you don’t have that toughness,” Okpara said. “I would say we just have to have a reason for what you’re doing. Because I have a reason for doing what I’m doing. I know I have people depending on me, and that’s what keeps me going. So I feel like guys need to find their push.”
