Fatigue, opponents’ scouting testing OSU
As Ohio State wound down the regular season, it was clear that fatigue was a factor. But as the Buckeyes dealt with a two-game losing streak and some closer-thanexpected finishes, the benefit of additional scouting had an impact as well.
After playing each team in the Big Ten once, the final five games were rematches. Although the Buckeyes had the opportunity to make improvements based on how the first game had gone, so did their opponents against a team that coach Chris Holtmann has often described as having a slim margin for error.
The result was that Ohio State’s shooting percentage, three-point percentage, average rebounds and points per game dipped in the final five games while the same figures went up for opponents compared with the first 13 conference games. The Buckeyes went 2-3 to finish one game out of first place in the Big Ten standings.
“I don’t know if there was an advantage one way or the other,” Holtmann said of the rematches. “Maybe our lack of depth on the scoring side of things makes it maybe a little easier at times to potentially take away some of our strengths, whereas if you have a little bit more depth across the board scoring it’s harder to do that.”
The benefit of a second look at Keita Bates-Diop helped Ohio State’s opponents. After averaging 21.4 points while shooting 51.5 percent from the floor (103 of 200) and 36.7 percent (22 of 60) from three-point range during the first 13 conference games, his numbers dipped to 14.2 points per game, 34.7 percent shooting (25 of 72) and 32.1 percent three-point shooting (9 of 28) over the final five.
“They really keyed in on Keita the second time we played teams,” sophomore forward Andre Wesson said. “Adjusting to that and knowing other people are going to have to step up and make plays since they’re keying so much on Keita, that’s definitely one thing we noticed.”
Holtmann has been consistent in his belief that, in a loss Feb. 15 to Penn State, the Buckeyes didn’t play with nearly enough urgency or fire to win. That was corrected three days later at Michigan, Holtmann said, but the Wolverines just played better in handing Ohio State a second straight loss.
And, yes, fatigue has been a factor. After a double-overtime win Friday at Indiana, Ohio State was off Saturday, had a light practice Sunday, a full practice Monday and was off Tuesday before beginning its Big Ten tournament preparation in earnest.
The hope is the Buckeyes will get continued contributions from different faces to make a tournament run.
“The deeper teams this time of year, they are a little more difficult to prepare for,” Holtmann said. “Hopefully we’ll have some guys step up.”