Ohio State searching for confidence as Bruce Thornton vows, 'we're going to figure it out'
EVANSTON, Ill. – Together, Jamison Battle and Evan Mahaffey were able to knock the ball loose from Northwestern guard Ty Berry. With all his momentum taking the Wildcats guard toward his own basket, Mahaffey turned upcourt and pushed the transition opportunity.
Two Northwestern defenders stood between him and the basket, but sophomore guard Roddy Gayle Jr. was streaking up the floor to his left. Trailing 46-33 in the first four minutes of the second half, Ohio State was already in significant need of the spark that a quick basket off a turnover could provide.
So Mahaffey bounced the ball to Gayle, and the sophomore guard got to the left block but eschewed the potential finish at the rim for a kick-out pass to Bruce Thornton in the right corner. Then Thornton passed up his look to hit a trailing Jamison Battle at the top of the circle. He faked, drove into the teeth of the defense and dropped it off to Mahaffey on the right block. With the full Northwestern defense back in position, Mahaffey was surrounded at the rim and forced to dish the ball back to the left wing to a waiting Gayle.
Finally, with 10 seconds left on the shot clock in a possession that started as a transition opportunity, Gayle took the shot as a Northwestern defender flew at him.
It didn’t fall. The final tally: five passes, four shots passed up and one mostly contested 3-pointer. Ohio State preaches the “one-more” pass, where the Buckeyes give up a good shot in the effort to get a great shot, but this didn’t look like that. This looked like a team that, on its way to a largely noncompetitive, 83-58 loss inside Welsh-Ryan Arena, had little confidence in its ability to knock down a shot or make a play.
“I think we’re just trying to figure out how to play and be better, and we’re in a difficult stretch and we’re struggling with confidence,” coach Chris Holtmann said. “We’ve got to figure out how to build some confidence by playing better.”
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It’s a feeling the Buckeyes dealt with while losing 14 of 15 games last season. To get out of it, the Ohio State coaches embraced celebrating small victories to help engender confidence in a roster featuring four first-year players in the primary rotation. Eventually, the Buckeyes were able to close by winning five of their final seven games but it was too late to help them build any sort of NCAA Tournament resume.
This year’s team has been clear that last year is just that: last year. But now, having lost five of six in a season that feels on the verge of collapse, it’s clear the Buckeyes are again dealing with a similar issue.
“You’ve just got to have a free spirit, man,” sophomore guard and captain Bruce Thornton said. “Even though things may not seem like the way you pictured it, you’ve got to find that confidence and faith in yourself because it’s easy to come across doubt and confusion: why’s it not going my way? Each and every day, I try to tell my teammates we’re going to figure it out.
“We don’t know how yet, but we’re going to figure it out.”
It’s on the to-do list for Ohio State to turn its season around. In each of their last two games, the Buckeyes have been unable to mount any sort of sustained push once their opponents have built leads. Nebraska and Northwestern handed Ohio State double-digit defeats to extend the Buckeyes’ road losing streak to 14 games, and both losses were largely noncompetitive during the second half.
Throughout, the Cornhuskers and the Wildcats pulled away by drilling 3-pointers as Ohio State continued to pile up the misses. The Buckeyes have been held below 70 points in all five of their losses during this skid as offense has dried up, and their adjusted defensive efficiency rating of 94.5 points per 100 possessions against the Wildcats marked a season low.
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Saturday night, there wasn’t much in the way of optimism as the Buckeyes departed for their flight home. Holtmann repeated said Ohio State flat-out needs to be better in every aspect, from coaching to game planning to on-court execution. Along the way, they need to find reasons to believe again.
“It’s our job as coaches to play the guys that we feel like have earned it and are engaged and we see that in practice,” he said. “And it’s clear that we’re struggling with our confidence here a little bit now. I think that’s a clear thing. We’ve got to figure out how to have some success and help them feel some confidence.”
The sooner the better, if Ohio State wants to have anything to play for in the final weeks.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Lack of confidence sinking Ohio State as losses pile up
