John Mobley Jr. scored a career-high 28 points and made a career-high six 3-pointers to lead the Buckeyes past UCLA. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Angie Greenwood)
Devin Royal’s emotional leadership prepared the Buckeyes for Saturday’s important Big Ten game, then his, Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr.’s best game carried the day.
Columbus, OH – Official or not, Devin Royal’s leadership is making a difference for the Ohio State basketball team, and maybe just in time. He’s the energy guy required for success in a program starving for it.
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Even though Bruce Thornton is the team’s only announced captain and the program’s only four-time captain, Royal doesn’t defer all responsibility to the team’s best player. Before every game Royal is the guy finding each teammate, bumping them in the chest, firing them up.
Royal knows it takes more than one man to lead a team of 14. He can’t let another season slip away for the Buckeyes into a sea of what ifs. So he has taken on the role of emotional leader to get a team where it wants to go – and observers know the NCAA Tournament is the destination Jake Diebler’s team longs for.
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“My coach is expecting me to have the most energy, bring the energy out of everybody, bring the dog out of everybody,” Royal said.
After a road game, Royal expressed his disappointment in his team’s lack of focus. The need for his kind of leadership was evident 12 days ago at home in a sometimes-lackadaisical loss to then-No. 10 and unbeaten Nebraska. After that game – one the Buckeyes should have won – Diebler said he wanted his team to play with urgency like its behind and time is running out.
After a 1-1 West Coast trip with mixed reviews, the Buckeyes (12-5, 4-3 Big Ten) faced UCLA (12-6, 4-3) on Saturday afternoon at the Schottenstein Center on CBS. If it felt like a big game, it’s because it was. The teams entered with similar resumes needing similar things to happen the rest of this season to make it to March Madness.
If the Buckeyes couldn’t get up for this game, well, it might have been the beginning of March sadness. So they fed off Royal’s emotion, never trailed but played like they did, and provided hope that the NCAA bubble won’t burst this time around.
Amare Bynum scores inside against UCLA’s Eric Dailey Jr. during Saturday’s Buckeye win at the Schottenstein Center.
The Buckeyes started fast each half and maintained as consistent an offensive performance as they have against any high major opponent this season. And with their three leading scorers – Thornton, Royal and most significantly John Mobley Jr. – all scoring above their averages, the Buckeyes brushed aside UCLA 86-74 for their first Big Ten home win.
“I want our guys to play with a great deal passion,” Diebler said. “We fed off the crowd, and the energy in the Schott today was really good. We want guys to play with joy and passion and aggressiveness. And I felt like we did that for a while today.”
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The first four minutes of each half were two of the most passionate and aggressive stretches of the game, emphasizing the need for being ready from the jump to win now and for the rest of the season.
The Buckeyes opened the game with a 9-4 burst and led 42-36 at halftime. They opened the second half with a 12-0 shelling to go up 54-36. That 21-4 advantage in those almost eight minutes stood the test of time.
The other bounce back the Buckeyes needed Saturday came from Mobley Jr. with a career-high 28 points. A 41% 3-point shooter, he was coming off a three-point effort (10 below his average) in which he took only five shots in the loss at Washington.
Bruce Thornton did what Bruce Thornton does. He ran the team, scored 21 points and had eight rebounds.
“I let my teammates down,” said Mobley Jr., who recently began a 5 a.m. shooting regimen. “I wasn’t aggressive as I was today. I was getting face guarded, so that affected me a little bit.”
Mobley Jr. and Diebler had a heart-to-heart talk after the Washington game. Diebler said he believes in speaking only truth and told his talented sophomore guard he played too fast with the ball in his hands and lacked poise.
Nothing bothered Mobley Jr. against UCLA. He got back to being the poised, under-control player he was been most of this season. He scored 18 points in the first half to keep the Buckeyes ahead, made 8 of 15 shots, including a career-high six 3-pointers on 12 attempts and made all six of his free throws. And he committed no turnovers against a defense that thrives on forcing miscues.
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Royal’s comfort in combining perimeter offense with his old ways of doing things in the paint continues to evolve. He made 7 of 10 shots, including all three of his 3-point shots, and scored 22 points to go with a team-high and energy-producing nine rebounds. Thornton scored 21 points, made 7 of 11 shots and grabbed eight rebounds.
Combined the three were 22 of 36 from the field, 9 of 16 from three and 18 of 19 from the foul line for 71 points.
“When we all three clicking like that, it’s hard to stop,” Mobley Jr. said. “The midpoint of the season we just got to play better, do better. So just having that conversation with each other, knowing what’s expected, finally came out and did what we had to do.”
The Buckeyes also played more zone defense than usual. While effective, there was little slowing down UCLA big man Tyler Bilodeau. He made four 3-pointers and difficult fadeaway jumpers to score 30 points and keep the Bruins close enough to make a threatening run. But the run never came because after some hot all-around shooting in the first half, the Bruins slipped to 32% in the second half.
“They wanted to drive and get in the paint a lot, get 34 (Bilodeau) post touches,” Royal said. “Staying in the zone just took them out everything. It was just very hard for them to see what we were doing. Our defense was just messing up their whole offense.”
Gabe Cupps continues to play valuable minutes off the bench and at times was part of a three-guard lineup with Thornton and Mobley Jr.
UCLA’s offense lacked rhythm as the Buckeyes surged to a 54-36 lead to open the second half. The lead remained in double digits and hit 19 on a Thornton layup with 12:56 left. The lead reached 18 four more times over the next five minutes.
The Bruins got as close as 10 with 2:33 left after several trips to the foul line. But no real threat to Ohio State’s lead materialized. And the bad taste of last year’s eight-point loss in Los Angeles for Bruins head coach Mick Cronin’s 500th win was gone.
“Just keeping the foot on the gas, keeping that same mentality that we had coming into the game,” Mobley Jr. said was key to the second half. “A lot of times before we would get that lead and relax, get comfortable. We didn’t want to do that today. We know how important this game was to us. And a little salty from last year.”
The flavor of this Ohio State season might be finding that good taste the right amount of salt brings. But March is a long way away. And Saturday’s positive showing means little if the Buckeyes don’t beat Minnesota (10-8, 3-4) on Tuesday.
“You can look at our schedule and say, ‘Man, that game is really big,’” Diebler said. “And that’s what I love about this league. It’s the deepest league in the country, and you have to bring it every single game.”
Royal gets it. And before Tuesday night’s game, he’ll be thumping teammates on the chest, making sure they are ready to make another 40 minutes count.
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