Ohio State MBB Stuck In Similar Position From One Year Ago

The Ohio State Buckeyes Are Once Again Struggling in the month of January.

After starting the season 12-2 with big wins over Alabama, Minnesota, UCLA and Rutgers, Chris Holtmann’s Buckeyes have started off the year playing like a new team — that is, on a bad losing streak.

Ohio State won its first game of the 2024 calendar year 76-72 over the Scarlet Knights but has since gone on a three-game skid.

After the Buckeyes’ 73-65 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor Monday, Holtmann said although the Big Ten is a deep conference, his team needs to finish better down the stretch.

“We’ve got to rely on our defense [late] when we’re not making shots,” Holtmann said when asked about his team's late-game struggles.

Ohio State has done a good job getting stops early in games but has neither been able to score nor able to contain opposing offenses in the last few minutes of games.

The seventh-year Buckeye head coach had high praise for his team despite its recent struggles.

“I love our locker room, I love our guys, I love the leadership from a couple of those older guys in the sophomore group,” Holtmann said.

Sophomore guard Bruce Thornton said postgame at Michigan that there is a “whole new team” with transfers including sophomore forward Evan Mahaffey, senior forward Jamison Battle and senior guard Dale Bonner. Thornton said Ohio State has gone through lots of ups and downs this season but that the “season is nowhere near to being over.”

“When it was the highest highs, we were on a roller coaster," Thornton said. "With the lows, we’re just trying to figure out and see what the team is really made of when adversity hits.”

It might be a new team. The Buckeyes had a very new team last season as well, as they relied on several then-freshman — including Roddy Gayle Jr., Felix Okpara, Brice Sensabaugh and Thornton — and Ohio State ended up in a similar pickle.

After starting the 2022-23 season 10-3 with good wins over Texas Tech, Rutgers and Northwestern, Ohio State went on two multi-game skids. Over a span of seven weeks, the Buckeyes went 1-14 in conference play from Jan. 5 to Feb. 23.

What’s so eerily similar about these two teams is their inability to finish games in January. Out of those 14 losses, nine of them came within 10 points.

Holtmann said his team’s struggle to finish may be more of a mental flaw.

“Sometimes we get deflated when our shots don’t go in late and that can affect us on the other end," Holtmann said. "And that’s a toughness thing."

Thornton, who has shot 34 percent from the field and 16 percent from downtown in the past three games, continued this sentiment, saying the team needs to keep their confidence in shooting.

“You have to shoot the next wide-open one,” Thornton said.

Thornton and Gayle combine for 30.9 of the Buckeyes’ 76.3 points per game. However, Gayle similarly has struggled to score during this skid, going 10-38 from the field and 0-12 from 3.

Thornton added that the team is going through a rough patch but said “we just can’t quit.”

“At the end of the day, I have the utmost confidence in my teammates and my coaching staff,” Thornton said.