Buckeyes got on roll once players understood roles
TULSA, Okla. — Name any college basketball coaching great. Wooden. Knight. Krzyzewski. Each won multiple national championships by turning stars into winners.
But none knew how to turn slow into fast or turn short into long. No amount of teaching trumps DNA. You either have incredible physical talent or you don’t.
Houston does. Unfortunately for Ohio State, the Cougars used that athletic advantage to outrun the Buckeyes 74-59 in an NCAA Tournament second-round game on Sunday night at the BOK Center.
Ending OSU’S season did not come easily for the Cougars. The No. 3 seed
was stymied at times by the Buckeyes’ brand of Big Ten basketball, which is to say a slower-paced game — or classically methodical, for the old-schoolers among you — that relies on sound defense to keep games close.
But in the end genetics won. And not just genetics but talent coupled with sound technique. The Cougars move their feet well defensively and usually land on the right spots on the floor.
It all led to some eye-opening statistics. Houston outscored OSU 34-12 in the paint and 16-7 in fast-break points and had 12 steals.
But Ohio State kept things closer than its No. 11 seed would have suggested, and after sweating out a tournament bid last Sunday, they won one NCAA game and competed to the end in another. The gang that sometimes struggled to shoot straight this season finished on a program uptick, Sunday’s loss notwithstanding.
Ohio State surprised early in the season (12-1 through December) and late (defeating No. 6 Iowa State on Friday and giving Houston a competitive game). Sure, some of the middle was a muddled mess, but this is a team that did not embarrass itself in the Big Dance.
And while it ended too early for the players, it also ended with a tiny smile, as senior C.J. Jackson shook off recent shooting woes to lead OSU with 18 points with only one turnover.
The question becomes how did the Buckeyes buck up after losing three straight games to finish the regular season?
Well, sometimes the most valuable assets are found beneath the surface.
Take Tulsa. Dubbed “Oil Capital of the World” in 1927, the black gold that gushed up from under the prairie created millionaires who built breathtaking art deco buildings that demonstrated their wealth.
Given how Tulsa’s affluence lay hidden until oil was found in 1901, it makes some historical sense that the Buckeyes would play their first two NCAA games in this former frontier town.
Over the past two weeks, Ohio State’s fortunes improved dramatically as it found its own buried treasure. It took awhile to locate the resource — injuries, the suspension of the best player and freshmen foibles all contributed to the delay — but the Buckeyes unearthed a belief built on commitment to the team-first system propagated by coach Chris Holtmann.
The success of Holtmann’s system, and really most systems, depends on each player buying into a specific role, even if it might not be the one they would choose. As Ohio State breezed through December, sticking to roles came easily. But as Big Ten play began, losses mounted and the younger players began to rely on instinct over instruction.
Ohio State’s midto-late season issues went beyond freshman follies. Graduate transfer Keyshawn Woods practically disappeared as a scorer and sophomore center Kaleb Wesson was up and down as he fought foul trouble.
“There definitely was a point where we all thought we weren’t doing that really well,” senior Joey Lane said of sticking to the role-playing script.
It was not until desperation set in, and missing the NCAA Tournament became a real possibility, that players re-aligned to their roles.
“Sometimes in kids’ minds (roles) need to be validated by them seeing the success in that,” Holtmann said, adding that success breeds brotherhood. “My college coach used to call it “teamness.”
The Buckeyes finally dug it out. It ended too soon, but it’s hard to defeat DNA.