Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament hopes grow dimmer with each loss, but head coach Jake Diebler still expects his team to rediscover winning.
Ohio State has performed on the thinnest of margins during its up-and-d0wn journey through the Big Ten basketball season.
The margin for what the Buckeyes want to accomplish – play in the NCAA Tournament – is gone.
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The Buckeyes began their two-game Los Angeles road trip Sunday with a 69-61 loss to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. With three straight losses, a 15-13 record and a 7-10 mark in the Big Ten, the Buckeyes don’t resemble the typical tournament team.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
But the eye test isn’t supposed to count, and that is the only thing keeping the Buckeyes in the conversation. However, no amount of quad 1 wins or strength of schedule numbers will matter unless the Buckeyes change course. With so many teams on the bubble it’s impossible to know what the Buckeyes must do in their final three games to earn a bid. But suffice it to say, they better win them all: at USC, home against Nebraska and at Indiana.
Before this weekend’s games, ESPN projected the Buckeyes as a No. 10 seed ahead of at least eight other potential at-large teams. It’s difficult to imagine them maintaining that status after Thursday’s crushing loss at home to Northwestern and Sunday’s loss to UCLA (20-8, 11-6 Big Ten).
“We control our own destiny – that’s really the reality to it,” Buckeyes head coach Jake Diebler said. “We’re not in position to where we have no chance to get to where we want to go. We’re a together group, and that’s going to be a big reason why we’re going to go on a run down the stretch.”
In typical fashion this season, the Buckeyes looked at times like a team good enough to beat one of the league’s better teams. But lack of consistency on both ends of the floor cost them again.
“We need to get healthier, but control our own destiny.” – OSU coach Jake Diebler
The Buckeyes trailed the Bruins 39-30 when they made what might prove to be a last-gasp effort to get where they want to go. Ques Glover drove for a layup at the end of a good possession. Micah Parrish was next with two free throws. Glover added another free throw, then another layup to cut UCLA’s lead to 39-37 with 13:25 left. But UCLA responded and kept responding to every Ohio State threat and pushed the lead to as high as 13 with 3:09 left.
The Buckeyes are also dealing with sickness. Center Aaron Bradshaw missed another game and guard John Mobley Jr. was limited to 23 minutes and eight points. As late as two hours before the game Diebler didn’t expect Mobley Jr. to play. Though disappointed with another loss, Diebler liked the way his team competed.
“We need to get healthier there’s no question,” Diebler said. “I thought our guys showed a great deal of toughness, and we got back to playing with the toughness and togetherness that has been our identity. If we play with that toughness and that togetherness and that fight, we’re going to win a lot of games down the stretch. There’s no question in my mind.”
Diebler said the offense moved the ball much better against UCLA’s tough defense than it did against Northwestern. But the Buckeyes still shot only 32% from the field and 22% from 3-point range. Bruce Thornton scored a game-high 21 points and Micah Parrish added 12.
UCLA needed to shoot only 40% to win, but they also made 40% (8 of 20) of their 3-point shots. Eric Dailey Jr. led the Bruins with 20 points and three others scored in double figures.
“We had a couple communication errors but not near what we had the last couple games,” Diebler said. “I thought our defense held firm. We talked about the game before not letting our offense affect our defense, and our defense battled.”
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