Ohio State outmuscled as losing slide continues
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – It’s not exactly a secret that something has been wrong with the Ohio State men’s basketball team for the better part of a month.
Sunday afternoon at the Crisler Center, Michigan became the latest to add to Ohio State’s litany of woes as it handed the Buckeyes a 77-69 loss, the program’s ninth in 10 games. The Wolverines scored 22 seconds in and held the lead for the duration, maintaining at least a two-possession edge for the final 13 minutes of the contest.
“We just need to get better,” Ohio State sixth-year forward and captain Justice Sueing said. “This group is very talented. We keep saying it over and over again. It’s not a lie. It’s the truth. This group is very special, and we’re just short. We just keep coming up short on little things that make a big difference at the end of the day.”
Michigan’s 7-1 center Hunter Dickinson put up 26 points and was 10 for 14 from two-point range, drawing eight fouls and committing just one in 36:22.
“We wanted to force him to take some tougher shots,” Sueing said. “That’s ultimately what went wrong in our game plan. A lot of his shots were easy, over-the-top shots . ... We were successful on a couple of those rotations, but not enough for us to win.”
The Buckeyes tried three different defenders on Dickinson with little success. Third-year center and captain Zed Key, at 6-8, 255 pounds, started out guarding Dickinson. Then 6-11, 220pound freshman Felix Okpara got an opportunity. After Okpara picked up a couple of quick fouls, third-year forward Gene Brown III and his 6-2, 215pounds
took a turn.
None of it really seemed to matter. In fact, Dickinson’s dominance of Okpara helped the Wolverines pull away. With the freshman on the court to start the second half, Dickinson scored six straight to turn a 48-44 lead into a 54-47 one.
He simply overpowered Okpara, and the final two buckets came as Key sat at the scorers’ table waiting to come in. Eventually, Holtmann had to call a timeout to get Okpara out of the game, but Ohio State never got closer than seven points again.
Holtmann said the solution to Okpara’s struggles won’t come this season.
“I’m trying to coach him to add about 10 pounds of muscle,” the coach said. “There’s some technique involved with
it, but as much as anything, with his length, he needs to add 10 pounds of muscle to able to defend those guys. He’s a really smart kid and a really smart player. He’s going to be able to learn post defense at a really high level.
“You add his length, his intelligence, his motor, the only thing he’s missing is strength. We need to get him stronger.”