John Mobley, Jr. shoots over the block attempt of Nebraska’s Rienk Mast for 2 of his team-high 22 points in Monday’s loss to the Huskers. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
Ohio State’s habit of lethargic starts doomed them again. And no amount of urgency in the second half against one of the Big Ten’s two unbeaten teams could make up for the lapses of the first half.
Columbus, OH – How much Jake Diebler’s players hear – not just listen, but hear and apply – after another coulda-woulda-shoulda defeat, will border on do-or-die for an Ohio State basketball team with 17 opportunities left to get it right.
They take a long flight to Oregon on Tuesday with time to consider what Diebler told them again Monday night after another missed opportunity in a 72-69 loss to No. 10 and unbeaten Nebraska.
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“We need to develop something we’ve been talking about for an extended period of time – develop the mentality that we play with when we’re potentially trailing or in the second half,” Diebler said. “We have to have that same mentality the whole game. That’s what’s required at this level. We are elite when we play that way.”
The Buckeyes (10-4, 2-2 Big Ten), however, are not elite nearly enough of the time in their quest to play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022. They are 2-3 in one-possession games because they are in the habit of waiting until they trail by double digits to realize they need to play with more urgency, mental focus and intensity every possession, every second.
When they are at their worst there’s too much ball-watching on defense, especially late in the shot clock, not enough on-ball defensive pressure, not always boxing out physically enough, losing the race to 50-50 balls and not running the offense crisply every possession. The lack of mental focus leads to missed shots in the paint and at the rim, of which there were plenty in the first half.
Missed opportunities in the first half…Christoph Tilly got to the rim on this drive but couldn’t close.
Diebler says his team plays hard and wants to win, but those mental lulls, those split-second lapses that opponents take advantage of have been impossible to overcome against ranked teams.
“When we saw them going on a little run our mentality changed, which shouldn’t be the case,” said John Mobley Jr., who scored a game-high 22 points and made five 3-pointers. “We should have the same mentality the whole game like Coach said plenty of times.”
The Buckeyes escaped Notre Dame and West Virginia (double overtime) by a point apiece, but they lost to Pitt (buzzer beater), North Carolina and now Nebraska with ample opportunities to win. They also had to come from behind to win at Northwestern and Rutgers.
Monday’s game played out similarly to the other close games.
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A defensive-driven comeback and better shooting in the second half gave the Buckeyes a chance. But this one came down to not getting the ideal shot with the ball in their hands starting with 9.1 seconds left. The Buckeyes expected to be fouled because they weren’t shooting the one-and-one yet. And Diebler still had a timeout if he needed it.
Defense gave them a chance in the second half…Amare Bynum (above) blocks the layup attempt of Nebraska’s Sam Hoiberg.
But the ball found 7-foot Christoph Tilly on the left wing, and he rushed a 3-point attempt with two Cornhuskers flying at him that left his hand with 5.3 seconds left. The shot sailed over the rim, Nebraska got the rebound, threw the ball up court and the game was over.
Instead of Mobley Jr. or Bruce Thornton – the team’s best marksmen – shooting for the tie, Tilly was a long shot. He made one early in the game but came in shooting 11.8% from that range on 34 attempts.
Still, as often is the feeling after a close loss, the Buckeyes believe it should not have come down to needing to make a 3-pointer to get to overtime. Had they defended in the first half like they did in the first half, it wouldn’t have.
OSU trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and 38-31 at halftime. They shot 38.7% in the first half while Nebraska shot 50%. The Cornhuskers, ranked in the top 10 for the first time since 1966, could have had a bigger lead if the Buckeyes hadn’t begun to find their edge late in the half.
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In the second half, the Buckeyes increased their ball pressure, made the Cornhuskers settle for more contested 3-pointers and forced them into tough shots late in the shot clock. They were focused.
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“Give Ohio State a lot of credit for the way that they changed things up in the second half and really made us uncomfortable and sped us up,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “We’ve been pretty good against pressure this year, but it bothered us tonight.”
The Cornhuskers held Thornton to two points in the first half. But, as he typically does, he became a scorer in the second half and finished with 16 points. The Buckeyes took their first lead at 49-48 on two Thornton free throws with 10:24 left. His 3-pointer put them up 53-50 two minutes later.
The score went back and forth until Nebraska turned a 58-57 deficit into a 65-58 lead with a 9-0 run. Diebler relied on his starters for the final 7:25 with the exception of a two-second defensive substitution in the final minute. In hindsight, he said he wished he had used the timeout he saved a few minutes early to give his team a rest.
But he didn’t. And the Buckeyes, who got no points from their bench, were clearly fatigued during Nebraska’s run that featured a 3-pointer after an offensive rebound and two conventional three-point plays. A media timeout with 2:18 left finally allowed the Buckeyes to replenish their oxygen.
Mobley Jr. hit a 3-pointer, Devin Royal (14 points) scored in the paint and Tilly turned a steal into a dunk to cut the Huskers’ lead to 67-65 with 1:01 left. Then freshman Braden Frager maneuvered for another three-point play for a 70-65 lead. A missed free throw kept the Buckeyes in it and Royal scored with 14 seconds left.
A stumbling start in the first half…OSU’s Brandon Noel lost a bucket on this player-control foul in Monday’s loss to Nebraska.
Two Nebraska free throws, however, with 9.1 seconds left meant the Buckeyes had to shoot from 3-point range.
“Certainly there’s other things, but this game came down to some 50-50, balls, and we’ve been the team that’s gotten those,” Diebler said. “We weren’t tonight, and that’s probably the most disappointing thing for me.”
Most of those 50-50 balls resulted in eight offensive rebounds. The most important of which led to the aforementioned 3-pointer by Pryce Sandfort that put the Huskers up 63-58.
All things for the Buckeyes to think about on their cross-country flight. They will play unranked Oregon and Washington. Then it’s back home to face unranked UCLA and Minnesota. The time is now to figure out how to play every possession like it’s their last for 40 minutes.
Because the next game after those four: January 23 at No. 2 Michigan.
Mobley heard Diebler’s urgent message in the locker room, and he sat next to him in the postgame news conference. He knows what is needed.
“We’re a well-connected team,” he said, “and I feel like we can figure this out together.”
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