Buckeyes successfully fight throug fatigue
OSU stays perfect in Big Ten with 64-59 win over Nebraska.
It was clear to anyone who watched Ohio State’s pregame warmups that fatigue was going to be a factor Monday night. Most noticeably, it was apparent to the players themselves.
“Me and Keita (BatesDiop) were joking before the game,” senior Jae’Sean Tate said. “You see all the young guys doing 360s, betweenthe-legs, and you see me and Keita laying it up, barely getting off the ground.”
Added Bates-Diop, “We save all our dunks for the game.”
He did, and the No. 13 Buckeyes found a way to grit their way to a 64-59 win against Nebraska that gave them a perfect opening half to the Big Ten season. Ohio State has now won eight straight and 13 of its past 14 while rapidly ascending the national polls. They did it despite playing their fourth game in nine days and capping a three-game road trip that took them to Rutgers, Northwestern and Madison Square Garden before enduring a one-day prep situation for Monday night’s game.
It likely had something to do with a 2 for 14 (14.3 percent) effort from 3-point range, Ohio State’s worst of the season. Nebraska’s length and skill certainly played a role in that, and Cornhuskers coach Tim Miles said his team didn’t factor Ohio State fatigue into its plans the way Buckeyes coach Chris Holtmann said he did Saturday against Minnesota.
But it was clearly a factor for the Buckeyes, and Tate admitted as much afterward when asked if he was tired.
“Yeah,” he said. “I am. I’m definitely a little fatigued. That’s just the cards we’re dealt, especially this season with the tournament being moved up. It’s a lit- tle tougher, but as team we’re doing a great job. The coaches are focusing more on film and recovery, so it’s been really helpful.”
Holtmann said the Buck- eyes tried to manage the quick turnaround by moving on from the win against the Golden Gophers as quickly as possible. Saturday afternoon, multiple players posted videos and photos to social media showing them riding exercise bikes hours after the win.
Strength and condition- ing coach Quadrian Banks was given ample postgame credit for having the Buck- eyes as physically prepared as possible for the game. The mental side, though, wasn’t overtly addressed.
“You play the ones in front of you,” Holtmann said. “We’ve not talked about that with our team. We’ve done our best to prepare our team. Our strength coach, as well as our training staff, have done an outstanding job. Coach Q was with our primary-minute guys all day yesterday withsome pretty innovative stuff trying to get them prepared. We never really talked about (it).
“We get to do this. We don’t have to do this. We get to play here on Monday night, a fun game. It was not a chore to do this. I think they’d much rather be playing than practicing, anyway.”
And in the end, it was another win for an Ohio State team that continues to exceed any and all preseason predictions.
Just don’t ask Holtmann what a win like this says about his team.
“I’m bad at these kind of questions,” he said. “I don’t know. It was a really gutsy, gutsy effort.
“Listen, I don’t want to take this for granted. I’ve never been a part of anything like this and I don’t know that I ever will again. You don’t start 9-0 in conference play, so I don’t want to take that for granted. It’s been an amazing run and hopefully we can continue it.”
Nebraska’s defense continually harassed any Ohio State player with the ball on the perimeter, whether it was in a man-to-man defense or a dangerous 1-3-1 zone. The Buckeyes solved it periodically, but Bates-Diop did the best job during a key second-half stretch.
Ahead 38-34 and with only six points to his name, BatesDiop scored 14 of Ohio State’s next 17 points to help fend off a record-breaking night from junior Nebraska guard James Palmer Jr., who finished with 34 points.