Often the most frustrating time when trying to reach a certain threshold of proficiency – in any endeavor – comes during the final push for a breakthrough.
That was the aura exuded by Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann in his postgame press conference following the Buckeyes’ 71-65 loss to Indiana on Saturday. Second-half shooting, a few defensive lapses, turnovers and lackluster play from some team stars cost the squad in one of the Big Ten’s most hostile road environments.
But there are other key areas – rebounding, mentality, generating open looks – where Holtmann felt Ohio State played plenty well enough to win.
“I thought we had some really good moments tonight,” Holtmann said. “I think that’s probably what makes (the loss) frustrating and disappointing is, you have some really good moments. You have some really good stretches of play. You really do some positive things, you just can’t answer the bell in a couple of areas.”
As it stands, however, the Buckeyes have lost their last 11 road games dating back to Jan. 1, 2023, when they beat Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois.
With a pivotal few months ahead for not just this year’s Ohio State team but Holtmann’s program as a whole, the Buckeyes need to tear down whatever walls are keeping them back in short order.
“We’ve just got to learn from it and move forward and take (away) the things that we need to get better at,” Holtmann said. “There’s certainly a lot of those. Then applaud the guys for the things they did well, and there were certainly a lot of those too.”
Shooting is the most obvious area to point to for Ohio State for why it didn’t get the job done, particularly in the second half.
The Buckeyes went just 28.2% from the field in the second half and 2-for-12 from three.
“We certainly had some good looks, particularly off offensive rebounds,” Holtmann said. “Wide open looks that you want guys taking. I think the ball, at times, stuck and it needs to move better, particularly with our guards. They’ve got to see those situations.”
One particularly infuriating sequence came in a 12-second span from 8:24 to 8:12 remaining in the second half. Ohio State forward Jamison Battle tossed up a mid-range shot and missed, but Evan Mahaffey pulled in an offensive rebound. He kicked to star point guard Bruce Thornton for a wide-open three, but he missed, only to have it collected again by Mahaffey.
This time Mahaffey dished it to the other half of the Buckeyes’ star backcourt tandem in Roddy Gayle Jr. for another wide-open triple. Again, it was a miss. Finally, Indiana cleaned up the defensive glass.
“We missed shots that we usually make,” center Zed Key said. “Shots weren’t falling tonight and they’re a good team. They’re at home. They made a good run and give credit to them.”
Gayle and Thornton weren’t up to their usual standard in general against the Hoosiers. The duo combined to shoot 7-of-34 from the field (20.6%) and 0-for-12 from distance. Gayle exacerbated things by turning the ball over five times, joining star forward Jamison Battle in that regard.
“He needs to play better, and he knows that,” Holtmann said of Gayle. “He will. Just gotta get back to work, gotta figure out how to help him as coaches.”
Holtmann added that Gayle’s decision-making is among the top areas he must address.
Ohio State turned the ball over on 14 occasions in total to Indiana’s four. The Hoosiers enjoyed a 22-5 advantage in points off of turnovers that negated the Buckeyes’ 24-9 edge in second-chance points.
“Their defense did bother us at times, then also (it was) just miscues,” Thornton said. “I feel like we need to be stronger with the ball and just have more ball security and just be patient on offense. But at the end of the day, we’ve just got to get better and move on.”
“We missed shots that we usually make. Shots weren’t falling tonight and they’re a good team.”– Zed Key on What went wrong for Ohio State at Indiana
Still, it’s not a lack of will that Holtmann sees in his ballclub. Ohio State went down 10 points with 3:34 to play and could have easily bowed out of the contest, but stayed in the fight and cut Indiana’s lead to 67-65 with 1:44 remaining before ultimately losing.
“No, nothing,” Holtmann said when he asked if there were any shortcomings mentally from his bunch. “It’s tough to win on the road. I thought, actually, we clawed back (from the 10-point deficit). So no, actually, I felt great about that.”
He added that he enjoyed his team’s effort on the glass. The Buckeyes outrebounded the Hoosiers 49-27 in the loss.
Holtmann also felt, however, that Ohio State needed to play better defense to compensate for how they shot the ball. He thought center Felix Okpara played “tremendous” on the interior but that his team didn’t get back fast enough on possession changes.
“A couple of transition plays where I didn’t think we were great in transition defense,” Holtmann said. “We left a ball-side shooter one time, gave up a three and I didn’t think our shrinks off the ball were great. Ball screen coverage, for the most part, was pretty good but a couple of transition plays and I thought we had an error on the ball side overall.”
The Buckeyes are confident they are capable of breaking their 11-game road losing streak soon. For now, it’s back to the drawing board.
“I think we have all the pieces,” Key said. “We were well-prepared. We were practicing well leading up to the game. I was confident coming in here today in getting a W but it just didn’t go our way. It’s really just practicing hard and paying attention to details. We’ll get back to that tomorrow and watch film and see what we need to clean up.”
With January and February rolling on, Ohio State knows it will need better shooting nights and better performance in other key areas.
“These whole next couple of months are a test of your fortitude, your resiliency and certainly your leadership,” Holtmann said.
