Late in season, Ohio State's defense starting to show some teeth as wins pile up
Eventually the low points created a valley that was swallowing Ohio State’s season.
The first one arrived at Assembly Hall on Jan. 6, when Indiana beat the Buckeyes, 71-65. The next one followed four days later at Value City Arena, where No. 15 Wisconsin won, 71-60. The most shocking one took place Jan. 27, when Northwestern hung 83 points on Ohio State in a 25-point win inside Welsh-Ryan Arena.
In an 11-game stretch culminating with a 62-54 loss at No. 20 Wisconsin on Feb. 13, the Buckeyes went 2-9 thanks largely to their defense trending in the wrong direction. According to BartTorvik.com, Ohio State allowed 104.2 points per 100 possessions during that span, the No. 152 rating in the nation.
Few offenses, especially ones without obvious first-round NBA talent, could overcome such porous defensive efforts. Ohio State was no exception, and it helped lead to the firing of coach Chris Holtmann with six games left in the season.
Now the Buckeyes are 4-1 under interim coach Jake Diebler entering Sunday’s regular-season finale at Rutgers, and a big part of the reason why has been a significantly improved defensive output. Starting with the 73-69 win against No. 2 Purdue in Diebler’s first game through last Sunday’s 84-61 win against Michigan, Ohio State has allowed an average of 96.0 points per 100 possessions.
That ranks 30th nationally, an improvement of 122 spots from the previous 11 games. Michigan’s Juwan Howard got a firsthand look at the Buckeyes in both stretches, and in comparing the two Ohio State teams he’s faced this year he credited the defensive improvement for being the separator.
“Defensively, they got into us,” he said. “That’s what caused a lot of those turnovers.”
The Buckeyes turned 18 Michigan turnovers into 27 points and turned the Wolverines over on 24.6% of their possessions, the highest percentage posted by the Buckeyes this season. In the first meeting, Michigan had nine turnovers.
“It’s a similar team with a similar system,” Howard said of the Buckeyes he coached against Sunday. “Yes, they have simplified some things from an offensive standpoint, but defensively they run the same stuff.”
So what’s different? After the win against Michigan, Diebler said Ohio State is playing with more “urgency and aggressiveness” on the defensive end. That much was clear against the Wolverines, where the Buckeyes held Michigan to an adjusted defensive efficiency rating of 83.5 points per 100 possessions.
It was Ohio State’s best defensive performance in Big Ten play, eclipsing the 91.4 rating against Michigan State. Three of the four best adjusted defensive efficiency ratings in Big Ten play for the Buckeyes have been in the last five games. In the process, Ohio State has climbed from around 140th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency to No. 80 according to KenPom.
“That’s been a big thing for us is stay aggressive, stay in the moment whether we’re up two or down two,” Diebler said after the Nebraska win. “We’ve been in both sides in that situation in the game and our guys have stayed really aggressive. We’ve been really connected and battled on the defensive side and our rebounding at the end of games has been important for that, too.”
The increased emphasis on defense has paid dividends at the other end of the court. Ohio State has scored 85 points off of turnovers in the last five games (17.0 per game) and has averaged 11.8 fast-break points per game, more than double its prior season average.
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“It makes our offense a lot easier when we get transition buckets,” fifth-year guard Dale Bonner said. “We don’t have to work as hard when we get stops on defense and all buy in as a collective. It makes our job easier.”
It’s also an example of an uptick in play at one end of the court having a direct effect on the other. Both are being fueled by a newfound pace utilized by a team seemingly bent on making up for lost time.
“Yes, it was a tough time for us with the coaching change, but guys were tired of the media and other aspects that surrounded that whole thing,” fourth-year senior Zed Key said. “We came together as a unit and said we’re going to play as hard as we can and we’re going to live with the result.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Improved Ohio State defense fueling late-season surge for Buckeyes