Buckeyes say they must have will to get better
WASHINGTON — The one big change a vocal portion of the Ohio State fan base wants to see won’t be happening this year.
Athletic director Gene Smith put thoughts of parting ways with coach Thad Matta to rest in the hours before a dispiriting loss Wednesday to Rutgers in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament.
So if everyone — minus lone senior Marc Loving — is slated to return next season, what do the Buckeyes need to do to get back on track, or at least locate the rails? There were plenty of little answers, depending on which dejected player was speaking inside the locker room at the Verizon Center, but much of it centers on one theme.
Everyone has to want to get better. And that’s on Matta as much as it is on each player, even as the coach again cited the notion that teachers can’t teach until students want to be taught.
“We had an embarrassing season, but it’s not all on coach Matta,” junior forward Jae’Sean Tate said. “The fans, they aren’t going to be happy, but they’ve got to be mad at us, too, as a team. I just don’t want you guys to think it’s all him, because he’s not the one out there playing. We are.”
When the Buckeyes play next is not yet known. After the NCAA announces its tournament selections on Sunday, the NIT will follow suit in a show on ESPNU at 8:30 p.m. Ohio State has returned a nonbinding agreement with the NIT, where the Buckeyes were being projected as a midrange seed.
Sophomore guard JaQuan Lyle, who said he is “1,000 percent” committed to returning next season, said Ohio State had too many bad practices this season. He pegged the number at somewhere between 20 and 30, to which Matta quipped that he must have been talking about one month, not one season.
The insistence is that talent is not the issue with this group. It’s more intrinsic and more challenging.
“We’ve got some guys who have come a long way, but it’s got to be that every day, getting better every single day,” Matta said.
“I’ve got to look at how we can reach a group of guys better. Change is hard, but it can be done. Our mental approach to things on a daily basis has got to get better.”
Loving had little to say on the topic, telling reporters, “It’s up to those guys. I’m going to leave it up to them to figure it out. Nothing we can do about that right now.”
Matta said he had expected this season’s team to be more mature and more competitive. Assistant coach Chris Jent gave them a challenge after the Rutgers loss.
“(He said) we all need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves if we actually care about this program, the university, the fans and each other,” Lyle said. “Me included. I feel like at times we don’t play with the heart and passion that we should. That’s the biggest thing.”