Ohio State Shows What It Didn't Before, Will Need More
The ebbs and flows of a season have taken the tide of despair buffeting the Ohio State basketball program out to sea for the moment, and the Buckeyes would prefer to keep it.
They can, with a win at Wisconsin on Sunday (1 p.m., CBS), which would be OSU's fourth straight triumph and complete an extreme makeover of a once-unsightly Big Ten record to .500 in the league.
But a loss, particularly via the dominant fashion the Badgers often torment their opponents at home, would bring back a tidal wave of doubt about how tough the Buckeyes are when adversity attacks.
Such questions about their fortitude dominated during a stretch in which they lost six of seven games, including down-to-the-wire home defeats against Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Put those games on the left side of the won-loss ledger and OSU's record (15-7, 5-6) looks dramatically better and its NCAA resume is considerably stronger.
The only way to atone, of course, is to make up that lost ground on the road, where no league member has found much success this season.
Michigan State, presumed the class of the conference, has lost three in a row and its three Big Ten losses include one in Madison that it trailed by 18 points before losing by one.
Maryland, which leads the league, started 0-3 on the road in conference and one of those also occurred at the Kohl Center.
So Ohio State's task appears above its pay grade until considering what occurred Wednesday at Michigan.
The Buckeyes exhibited previously-unseen fortitude via:
- Kaleb Wesson adjusting to physical play seldom allowed even in the rough-and-tumble Big Ten to have the best game of his career, with 23 points and 12 rebounds and a dominant defensive performance without incurring foul trouble, bothering Michigan seven-footer Jon Teske into a 1-for-7 struggle.
- Kyle Young, a 60% free throw shooter, going to the line with 33 seconds left and stripping two free throws to cancel a pair from Michigan's Xavier Simpson that had just put the Wolverines in front by one. Young did that have Simpson ripped his jersey, necessitating a change to a new jersey, before shooting from the line.
- Duane Washington threading a 3-pointer from key with 57 seconds left to wipe out a two-point Michigan lead, on the heels of having thrown away a crucial possession with a traveling violation and having missed three of his four previous shots.
- C.J. Walker going to the line with the Buckeyes up one and making both ends of a one-and-one with 18 seconds left to build a 61-58 lead that survived when Michigan missed a triple at the buzzer.
All of that -- and winning a second straight game since the departure of impact freshman D.J. Carton for personal reasons -- screams toughness from a team that didn't display much of that quality in late December and early January.
"I think we have to keep building on that part," OSU coach Chris Holtmann said. "A big part of toughnss is the ability to make the next right play in the course of a game. That's going to define what our toughness level is as much as anything -- the ability to make the next right play, physically and mentally make the next right play that your team needs you to do.
"I thought we did that, but we have to keep building on that. Each game is different. That game was physical. There will be other games that aren't as physical but it will require toughness from us in different ways."
For the latest on Ohio State follow Sports Illustrated Buckeye Maven on Facebook and @BuckeyeMaven on Twitter.
