Here are four New Year's resolutions for the Ohio State men's basketball team
There’s a lot about 2023 that Ohio State is happy to forget.
Oh, it started off fine. Not even 24 hours into the year, the Buckeyes went to Northwestern, which would eventually earn the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, and thoroughly dominated the Wildcats to the tune of a 73-57 win that wasn’t nearly that close. It improved Ohio State to 10-3 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten, and when the next Associated Press poll published the Buckeyes were tucked just inside at No. 24.
Then it all fell apart. Losses in 14 of their next 15 games would send the Buckeyes careening out of the NCAA Tournament picture for the first time in coach Chris Holtmann’s six seasons, plunging the program into an offseason of reflection.
Now Ohio State steps into 2024 with growing optimism. Saturday night, the Buckeyes held on against West Virginia inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland to take an 11-2 record into the new year. That victory also gave the Buckeyes a .500 record of 18-18 during 2023.
Here are four New Year’s resolutions for the Buckeyes.
Buckeyes need to rebound better
The first statistic Holtmann said he’s been checking after each game is his team’s defensive rebounding percentage. As the Buckeyes endeavor to be better defensively than they have been in recent years, the coaches have consistently cited this statistic as being critical to their chances for success.
The results have been hit or miss. Ohio State has improved from where it finished in each of the last two seasons, but it’s still outside the nation’s top 100 according to KenPom.com. The Buckeyes are allowing teams to rebound 28.3% of their misses, the 135th-best mark in the country. Ohio State hasn’t been in the nation’s top 100 since the 2019-20 team was 72nd at 25.5%.
Things are better, but not good enough. Case in point: Ohio State held West Virginia to only two offensive rebounds during the first half (11.7%), then allowed eight on 18 misses during the second half (44.4%) and two on four misses in overtime (50.0%) to finish at 29.3% for the game.
Continue to bring the freshmen along
This year’s crop of first-year players has the luxury of not being needed to assume the roles that members of last year’s class did. Only two of the four freshmen have played in more than half of Ohio State’s games, and none are among the seven most-used players on the roster.
Scotty Middleton is eighth in average minutes played at 17.4 per game and missed one game due to injury. Devin Royal is ninth in average minutes played at 8.3 and was a healthy, unused substitute for the loss at Penn State. Taison Chatman and Austin Parks have battled injuries and are on the outside of the rotation looking in.
Through the first 13 games last season, four of Ohio State’s nine most-used players were freshmen. This year’s group isn’t being relied upon at nearly that level, but getting more production from them – particularly Middleton and Royal – could go a long way toward determining how much better the Buckeyes get by season’s end.
Be more clutch late in games
At face value, this might feel a bit nitpicky given Ohio State’s 11-2 record. Both losses were by single digits, and in this era of college basketball, upsets happen with greater regularity than ever and few leads ever feel truly safe.
A loss like the one the Buckeyes took at Penn State on Dec. 9, when they led by 18 points with 15:31 to play only to fall 83-80, is the kind that can stick with a team long after the final whistle. To Ohio State’s credit, it responded by taking down UCLA one week later and blasted overmatched New Orleans before Christmas before holding on against West Virginia in Cleveland on Saturday. But that most recent game got nervy late. Against the Mountaineers, Ohio State was outscored 12-4 in the final five minutes as West Virginia forced overtime.
Then, in overtime, the Buckeyes missed their last five free throws in the final 1:15 and had a turnover as West Virginia got the ball with 19 seconds to play and a chance to tie the game. Ohio State fouled with eight seconds left to take that opportunity away and prevailed, 78-75, but it got plenty dicey in the final minutes.
Even a win against Minnesota Dec. 3 shows there’s still work to be done in this area. Against the Gophers, a 20-point second-half advantage was shaved to an 84-74 final score.
Ohio State Buckeyes: Join the Ohio State Sports Insider text group with Bill Rabinowitz, Joey Kaufman Adam Jardy
Win some road games
The Big Ten threatens to be a logjam once again this year. With Purdue at the top, a general repeat of last year’s standings that saw 11 teams finish between 12-8 and 9-11 in league play seems possible again in 2023-24. For the Buckeyes to find themselves on the right side of that, they need to take care of business on the road.
Ohio State has not won a true road game since last year’s win against Northwestern on New Year’s Day. It’s a 10-game road losing streak when you add the loss at Penn State this year. That is the longest since Ohio State lost 16 straight road games starting on Jan. 11, 1997 with a 69-66 loss at Michigan State and ending Feb. 25, 1998 with a 61-56 win at Wisconsin.
Ohio State’s next chance is Saturday at Indiana.
Get more Ohio State basketball news by listening to our podcasts
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What New Year's resolutions could Ohio State have? Here are four ideas
