Minnesota was 'the tougher team,' Roddy Gayle says: 4 Ohio State takeaways
MINNESOTA – The peak was gone, and Roddy Gayle and the Buckeyes were low – literally and figuratively.
In its first game since an emotionally charged home upset of No. 2 Purdue on Sunday, Ohio State returned to the road and again took a loss. In a game they never led, the Buckeyes (15-12, 5-11 Big Ten) battled throughout but couldn’t overcome a poor start and close to the first half in an 88-79 loss to Minnesota 17-9, 8-7) on Thursday night.
The two teams posted nearly identical shooting numbers. Ohio State was 29 for 57 (50.9%) from the floor, 7 for 23 (30.4%) from 3 and 14 for 18 (77.8%) from the line. Minnesota, aided by the Buckeyes fouling late to extend the game, were 28 for 56 (50.0%) overall, 8 for 19 (42.1%) from 3 and 24 for 31 (77.4%) from the line.
It added up to a nine-point loss for the Buckeyes, and afterward Gayle said some of the lessons they hoped they had learned about themselves in beating Purdue hadn’t followed them into Williams Arena, with its elevated court and locker rooms set into the sub-floor level of the building.
“I feel like Minnesota was the tougher team,” Gayle said. “I feel like we’ve got to bring more energy and more pop, especially on the road. We can’t let that Purdue game determine who we are. We’ve got to build on that. We will have a much better approach going into Michigan State.”
The next road game arrives Sunday, and the Buckeyes will take up residence in Minneapolis for a bit. Rather than fly home and then to East Lansing, Ohio State will stay in town, practice Friday and head to Michigan State on Saturday.
Interim coach Jake Diebler, who falls to 1-1 since taking over when Chris Holtmann was fired Feb. 14, has preached pace and accountability from his players while he’s been running practice. Postgame, he said the Buckeyes had prepared accordingly for the game despite what the final score showed.
“I don’t think our guys felt like this was going to be any easier, and we practiced really well leading into it,” he said. “Sometimes maybe guys are searching for answers when a guy goes this way and sometimes it’s as simple as we didn’t have the necessary urgency to start the game, but I didn’t notice the last few days necessarily a hangover from the Purdue game. We certainly didn’t have the urgency that we needed to start the game.”
He’s not wrong. Here are three other takeaways from the Ohio State loss.
Minnesota came out with more aggression
Just like in Sunday’s game against Purdue, Ohio State dug itself an early deficit. Unlike in that game, this would prove insurmountable.
Dawson Garcia opened the game with a jumper on the left baseline, and after Felix Okpara missed an ill-advised shot near the rim Minnesota’s Mike Mitchell Jr. hit a 3-pointer. That made it 5-0 only three possessions in, and when Evan Mahaffey was blocked at the rim by Pharrel Payne it led to a Garcia 3-pointer from the top of the circle.
Just like that, the Buckeyes trailed by three possessions only three possessions into the game. They would be playing catchup for the remainder.
“I thought we gave them some clean looks early to start the game, which let them get into a little bit of a rhythm,” Diebler said. “We wanted to make sure we guarded the 3-point line well, because we knew what they were capable of, and we didn’t execute that well enough.”
Ohio State would tie the game at 30 and again at 32 but could never get over the hump in part because it couldn’t get enough stops. An example:
Trailing by 11 during the second half, Ohio State got the ball to Zed Key, who hit a jumper in the paint on one of Bruce Thornton’s six assists. Garcia missed a 3-pointer, but Payne outhustled everyone for the long offensive rebound, leading to an Elijah Hawkins 3-pointer.
Garcia’s miss came with three seconds left on the shot clock after the Buckeyes had played solid defense on the possession only to allow the offensive rebound and the 3-pointer.
“It felt like (that happened) a lot,” Diebler said. “We’ve got to continue to guard without fouling. I think fouling has been an issue for us at times this season. We guarded for long stretches of individual possessions, we just weren’t quite able to finish them the way we needed to. You can can’t have multiples of those.”
Ohio State committed 23 fouls, five of which came during the final 1:36 as the Buckeyes tried to extend the game by stopping the clock.
“That’s been a problem with us,” Gayle said of failing to close out defensive possessions. “I feel like we did good against Purdue but we’ve got to be able to close possessions. We’re just making our job harder for us. Guarding each possession for 30-40 seconds, it gets tiring.
“I feel like we play really good defense, but them getting tip-outs leading to second-chance points killed us, honestly.”
Buckeyes set new record for road futility
Minnesota became the final Big Ten team to hand Ohio State a road defeat during a losing streak that has now reached a program-record 17 games.
Nebraska, Indiana, Michigan and Iowa have beaten the Buckeyes twice while the rest of the league each has one home win against Ohio State since a Jan. 1, 2023 win at Northwestern.
“Obviously I’m a competitor, so I’m not happy about it at all,” Gayle said. “The Big Ten’s probably the hardest it’s been, ever. There’s no guaranteed wins in the Big Ten. Wherever you go on the road, you’ve got to play your best. You’re playing some of the best teams in the country. Yes, we’re not getting blown out, we’re in every game, but we’ve got to be able to close out the game better.”
Of the 17 losses, 12 have been by single digits. An 82-55 defeat at Purdue on Feb. 19, 2023, marks Ohio State’s most lopsided defeat during the streak, just ahead of the 83-58 loss at Northwestern this year on Jan. 27.
The Buckeyes lost in overtime at Rutgers, 68-64, on Jan. 15, 2023. They followed that with a 63-60 loss at Nebraska three days later. On Dec. 9, Ohio State led by 18 but lost, 83-80, at Penn State, but the closest defeat was a 79-77 loss at Iowa on Feb. 2.
The average margin of defeat is 10.1 points per game.
Ohio State lost the paint battle
The production difference between Minnesota’s primary post players and their Ohio State counterparts was significant.
Dawson Garcia, who had scored 36 in the first meeting between the teams, finished with 22 points and a team-high nine rebounds in 32:56. Pharrel Payne, his sidekick, added 15 points and four rebounds in 27:23. He also went a surprising 5 for 7 from the line after shooting 38.3% (36 for 94) through the first 25 games of the season.
They also drew 10 fouls and committed two apiece.
“Their bigs are talented, and you’ve got to give them a lot of credit, but our bigs are talented too,” Diebler said. “I believe that. I think certainly they’re capable of more.”
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Okpara was held scoreless for a second consecutive game for the first time in his career. After missing two shots against Purdue, he posted the same line against Minnesota. He fouled out against the Boilermakers after playing 16:13 and finished with four fouls in 19:56 against Minnesota. Okpara did not get a rebound against Purdue and had two against Minnesota.
“Felix, part of his issue the last couple games has been foul trouble,” Diebler said. “It’s been really hard for him to get into a rhythm. There’s some technical things he can clean up defensively to still be aggressive and protect the rim without fouling.”
Key was a spark against the Boilermakers, scoring 9 points and nabbing a career-high five steals. Thursday night, he had 7 points and one rebound in 17:36 off the bench. It was his fourth straight game with one rebound or fewer, including a night with zero rebounds in a Feb. 13 loss at No. 20 Wisconsin.
“Those two certainly are capable of helping this team at a really high level,” Diebler said. “The sooner we can get them doing that more consistently, (the better) we’ll be consistently because they’ve had some really good moments.”
Mahaffey led Ohio State with seven rebounds.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Minnesota 'the tougher team,' Roddy Gayle says: 4 Ohio State takeaways
