Ohio State Basketball: Biggest Takeaways from Rivalry Showdown vs. Michigan

If you know any Ohio State fans in your life, now would be a good time to ask them how they feel.

Good luck finding a more euphoric group of people than Buckeye Nation after their football team won the national championship in blowout fashion against Oregon and their basketball team destroyed archrival Michigan the very next day.

Head coach Thad Matta’s bunch cruised to a 71-52 victory Tuesday in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final scored indicated. D’Angelo Russell led the way with 21 points, six assists and four steals, but it was a complete team effort.

Here is a look at some of the biggest takeaways from that contest.

Full-Court Press May Be Here to Stay

Mike Munden/Associated Press

Ohio State used a full-court press in the final four minutes against Indiana and almost came back from a double-digit-point deficit.

Matta must have liked what he saw because he used it for most of the game against Michigan.

Matta discussed the defense he used on Tuesday with The Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com). "Even when we had stretches where we weren't scoring we defended well,” he said.

Ohio State tallied 11 steals, including a ridiculous five from Sam Thompson and four from Russell, and created enough havoc to make Michigan’s guards uncomfortable for the duration of the game. That alone was key because the backcourt is the strength of this season’s Wolverines team, at least on paper.

Zak Irvin turned it over four times, Caris LeVert coughed it up three times and Derrick Walton Jr. finished an abysmal 1-of-7 from the field.

In fact, Michigan turned the ball over on 13 of its 65 possessions (20 percent) and allowed 19 points off those turnovers. That is not the formula for a Big Ten win, especially on the road.

An Energized Amir Williams Is a Good Amir Williams

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Nobody is the target of more criticism from Ohio State basketball fans than Amir Williams, and much of it has to do with his energy level and overall hustle. There was no room to complain on Tuesday evening, though.

Williams finished with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field, five rebounds and three blocks.

The Buckeyes are never going to ask Williams to be Shaquille O’Neal, and he did exactly what he was supposed to do against Michigan by protecting the rim, contributing on the glass and converting his easy looks at the basket.

He also played with plenty of emotion and energy, and visibly fired himself and the crowd up on a handful of occasions.

Perhaps the rivalry brought the best out of him, but that version of Williams would help the Buckeyes compete in the Big Ten.

It would also quiet the criticism.

Michigan Won’t Make the NCAA Tournament

Carlos Osorio/Associated Press

This may be music to Ohio State fans’ ears, but if something doesn’t drastically change between now and March, the Wolverines will be watching the Big Dance at home.

Michigan fell victim to lazy and lackadaisical passes against the press, shot 33.9 percent from the field and turned the ball over on at least 20 percent of its possessions for the fourth time already this season.

The Wolverines looked more like a cupcake opponent that visits Ohio State in November than a Big Ten rival.

The Buckeyes were up by as many as 28 points in the second half. Had it not been for a mini-spurt from Michigan after Ohio State took its foot off the gas, this could have been a 35-point game.

Don’t take it from me, though. This is what Rod Beard of The Detroit News had to say before the Wolverines lost to the Buckeyes—and after they lost to Purdue—in an article that called Michigan mentally weak right in the title:

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After an abysmal shooting performance in the second half of the 64-51 loss at Purdue on Saturday, the Wolverines (8-6, 1-1 Big Ten) are starting to more closely resemble an NIT team than an NCAA Tournament team.

Their 7-5 start in the nonconference season — which featured horrific losses to New Jersey Institute of Technology and Eastern Michigan — didn't leave them much margin for error in the conference slate. The Wolverines eked out an overtime win over Illinois last week but looked disheartened after shooting 18 percent (4-of-22) in the second half against Purdue.

"

That 7-5 nonconference start is a major reason why the Wolverines’ tournament hopes are in serious jeopardy.

Sure, losses to Villanova, Arizona and even SMU are explainable, but home losses to the New Jersey Institute of Technology—shoutout to the Ohio State fan with an NJIT shirt in the crowd Tuesday—and Eastern Michigan certainly aren’t.

It also doesn’t help Michigan’s chances that both Ohio State and Michigan State have looked average at best for large stretches of the year. The opportunity for quality wins in the Big Ten outside of Wisconsin and Maryland is shrinking, and the Wolverines are simply not a good basketball team—at least not yet.

Don’t Schedule Home Games for Ohio State After the National Championship

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Basketball is always going to take a backseat to football in Columbus, but that was glaringly clear Tuesday.

The late-arriving crowd seemed to be experiencing what can only be called a championship hangover from the football game the night before. The stands never quite filled all the way in, and the energy level was lacking for most of the game.

Given the crowd split in the national championship that heavily favored Ohio State over Oregon, most of Buckeye Nation was probably still partying in Dallas.

And rightfully so.

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