Once he hit his stride, Devin Royal never looked back, dropping in 22 points against Rutgers. Bruce Thornton added 22 more during the 80-66 defeat of the Scarlet Knights. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Devin Royal was an unstoppable and efficient force around the basket Saturday to help Ohio State rebound from Wednesday’s miserable loss at Maryland.
Columbus, OH – When Jake Diebler became Ohio State’s interim head coach last season, Devin Royal’s college basketball ascension began.
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Royal finally played significant minutes off the bench. He averaged 8.0 points over the final nine games. The Buckeyes won seven of those games. Then in the offseason, with Diebler now the permanent head coach, they talked about what Royal could achieve in his sophomore season.
“He and I were aligned on what we thought this year could be for him,” Diebler said.
Sometimes in the offseason Diebler saw progress, but sometimes he didn’t. When the season started, Royal came off the bench the first four games even after scoring 16 points in a season-opening win over Texas. But Diebler said all along he felt like he had more than five starters. And after center Aaron Bradshaw was indefinitely suspended, Royal became a starter.
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Now it will take an act by the Board of Trustees to get Royal out of the lineup.
Royal played his best game yet as an emerging Big Ten star on Saturday in Ohio State’s 80-66 bounce-back victory over Rutgers at the Schottenstein Center. He scored 22 points, including 16 of the Buckeyes’ first 22 of the second half.
“Devin Royal is a really good player, and we’ve always believed he was going to become a really good player,” Diebler said. “He has earned the right to play well with the consistency that he’s played with.”
In his past six games, including his last game coming off the bench (20 points against Evansville), Royal’s efficiency is the envy of the Big Ten. He made 9 of 12 shots Saturday and is shooting 68.3% and averaging 17.5 points during the six-game stretch.
Bruce Thornton goes down but does not give up his dribble, dropping in 22 points.
“He continuously keeps putting in work each and every day,” junior point guard Bruce Thornton said. “He got great energy, he got great toughness – he’s just an everyday guy. When you have players like that, it makes my job as a point guard easier.”
At 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, Royal is not a traditional back-to-the-basket post player. But he loves to bang in there and score just like he did as Ohio’s Mr. Basketball at Pickerington North. Royal attacks the post off the dribble, and defenders are left to guess what move is coming and wonder if he will shoot over them or power his shot through them.
“I always love playing physical since high school,” Royal said. “That’s one of the big strengths in my game. I can play physical finish through contact.”
Royal had the Scarlet Knights’ number from No. 0 Jordan Derkack to No. 99 Zach Martini. They guarded Royal the most but were overmatched nearly every time he got the ball in scoring position.
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Royal showed his prowess in the paint with three early buckets. But two fouls sent him to the bench with 10:31 left in the half. Fortunately for Diebler, he could save Royal for the second half because the Buckeyes stayed in front.
There might have been a moment when Diebler was tempted to put Royal back on the floor. The dreaded drought that plagued the Buckeyes in successive losses to Pitt and Maryland threatened to make an unwelcome appearance late in the first half. Royal had been on the bench for over six minutes.
After a fast start and a consistent follow-up by taking the ball inside against a defense dedicated to preventing 3-point shots, the Buckeyes missed four straight shots, yet clung to a 31-29 lead.
Then the refreshing rains fell.
While John Mobley, Jr., never found his scoring groove (1-3 for 3 points,) he was scrappy on defense, pictured here battling Jeremiah Williams for possession.
Thornton and John Mobley Jr. swished 3-pointers to spark an 8-2 run to end the half with a 39-31 lead. In the half, the Buckeyes (6-3, 1-1 Big Ten) shot 57%, made 4 of 11 3-pointers and Thornton scored 14 points.
And after an equally hot-shooting start by Rutgers (5-4, 0-1), the Buckeyes’ defense began forcing more and more contested shots and turnovers. The Scarlet Knights finished the half at 37% and missed their final three 3-point attempts to finish 4 for 9.
Rutgers, still committed to limiting Ohio State’s feared 3-point attack, saw the best of Royal since his high school days. He scored 16 of the Buckeyes’ first 22 points of the second half. Royal’s dominance countered Rutgers’ best stretch of offense since the game’s opening minutes, keeping the Buckeyes in the lead, 61-53, with 9:25 left.
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“He was in foul trouble, and most players that would have taken them out of their rhythm,” Diebler said. “He picked up right where he left off, and I don’t know if he would have done that last year. So he deserves a lot of credit because he’s worked for it.”
Following Royal’s lead, the Buckeyes outscored Rutgers 46-18 in the paint, and they had no answer for Royal’s move du moment.
Ace Bailey appeared to have the perfect position to deny Meechie Johnson the bucket, but Johnson pulled off some amazing aerial gymnastics and kissed it off the glass for two, stretching the Buckeye lead in the second half.
“He is a mismatch problem for certainly this league, but really anybody,” Diebler said. “He just has a knack around the elbow and in to produce – this natural knack and organic feel in that space. He’s got a combination of soft touch and physicality that’s pretty hard to teach.”
When Rutgers decided it couldn’t let Royal continue to dominate, the rest of the scorers took over. Meechie Johnson’s driving layup made the score 70-56 with 3:58 left. And by the 2:46 mark, the Buckeyes had used a 17-8 run to build a 76-61 lead.
Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell knew his team couldn’t let Thornton, Johnson, Micah Parrish and Mobley Jr. shoot 30-some open 3-pointers. His team held the Buckeyes to season lows of six made threes and 18 attempts.
“You got to give up something,” Pikiell said. “And [Royal] did a good job isolating our guys. He made some tough twos, too. We want guys to take tough twos. Tip of the hat to him today.”
Royal making physical moves around the basket isn’t the only benefit of the ball getting into the paint. Passes into the paint and back out often result in 3-pointers. Others, especially the guards, are able to score at the rim. And the attention on Royal creates openings for big men Sean Stewart and Parks to score. Royal revealed that the numbers say the Buckeyes shoot 80% when the ball makes into the paint during a possession.
Austin Parks had his best game yet as a Buckeye, grabbing 4 rebounds and contributing 6 points in 16 minutes of playing time.
While Royal used those paint touches to set a lets-finish-these-guys-off tone in the second half, Thornton set a winning-mindset tone in the first half. Three times he hit tough shots along the baseline on his way to 14 of his 22 points.
Thornton’s opening salvos were what Diebler wanted. Thornton didn’t look to score early and scored nine points and took only seven shots in Wednesday’s humbling 83-59 loss at Maryland.
“Before we left the arena in Maryland, I told him, ‘You can’t wait to be aggressive,’” Diebler said. “And it’s very easy to tell Bruce to be aggressive because you trust him to make great decisions. Being aggressive doesn’t necessarily mean shooting every time. But he does need to hunt his shot more in the first half.”
Thornton said he hated falling behind by 40 points to the Terps in the second half. So much so that he didn’t watch the game video by himself like he’s always done. He watched it with the team, however, and resolved for a game like that to never happen again.
Sean Stewart comes up with a loose ball during the 80-66 defeat of the Scarlet Knights.
“What can I do to help my team be the best it possibly can?,” Thornton said were his post-Maryland thoughts. “And due to the situation we just had, it’s easy just to put my head down, get quiet. But I just know we have 19 more Big Ten games.”
Before the next Big Ten games, the Buckeyes have neutral-court games against No. 2 Auburn in Atlanta next Saturday and No. 4 Kentucky in New York the following Saturday.
The Buckeyes will face more high-level scorers like they did against Rutgers. They were successful Saturday, holding freshmen guards Dylan Harper (18 points) and Ace Bailey (12 points) to 13 points below their combined average.
But the Scarlet Knights had no answer for Devin Royal.
“The thing I love about Devin is you can coach him hard,” Diebler said. “He has responded in the best way you would hope as a coach. I have a high, high, high level of belief in him. I don’t think he’s done.”
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