Ohio State Basketball: What Buckeyes Must Do to Contend for B1G Title

The date was September 6, 2014, and the Ohio State football season was virtually over.

Buckeye Nation begrudgingly slumped out of the hallowed gates of Ohio Stadium after watching its football team lose in startling fashion to a mediocre Virginia Tech squad. It was the cherry on top of the gut punch that was delivered just weeks before when superstar quarterback Braxton Miller was ruled out for the season with injury.

You don’t have to be an Ohio State fan to remember what happened next.

While it may be a far stretch to envision Thad Matta and the basketball Buckeyes rallying together after a slow start in the same fashion their football counterparts did, it would be ill-advised to simply give up on this team already.

Sure, Ohio State is in eighth place in the Big Ten standings, but it is only two games back in the loss column. A conference title is not out of the picture just yet.

After all, crazier things have happened in Columbus this very month. 

Here are some things that Matta’s bunch has to do if it hopes to contend for that Big Ten championship.

Win the Next Six Games

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There is really no shame in any of Ohio State’s losses if each one is viewed through a vacuum, but there are also zero quality wins on the resume. If that pattern continues, an NCAA tournament bid is no sure thing.

All it would take is one bad loss to throw the entire resume off, especially since the nonconference schedule was a steady diet of cupcakes outside of the two losses to Louisville and North Carolina.

That is why the next stretch of six games is so important for both the team’s NCAA tournament hopes and Big Ten title aspirations. There is a mix of games that the Buckeyes should win and a couple of opportunities at home against nationally ranked squads to bolster the overall resume.

Based on talent alone, Ohio State should beat Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers and Penn State in four of the next six contests. Yes, Purdue has a winning record in the Big Ten, but it also lost to North Florida, Vanderbilt and Gardner Webb. Rutgers shocked Wisconsin, but Frank Kaminsky didn’t play and the Scarlet Knights have lost three in a row since. Penn State and Northwestern have one combined win in Big Ten play.

Matta talked about the need to take it one game at a time in this upcoming stretch, via Tim Shoemaker of Eleven Warriors:

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The one thing I know is that if you treat them all in terms of one game at a time, you’ve got to — if you don’t take care of business in the first one then the next one is like a tornado hit. If you don’t take care of that one then the third one is — we’ve come home from Iowa and had two practices today, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and basically said, ‘Look, we’ve got to get ourselves better on both sides of the ball and there’s got to be more of an understanding, more of a commitment in terms of what we’re trying to do.

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The other two games in this must-win portion of the schedule are both at home against Indiana and Maryland. The Hoosiers (who already beat Ohio State once) and Terrapins are both nationally ranked, but the Buckeyes have to start winning a couple of meaningful games.

The only other ranked team on the schedule is mighty Wisconsin, so these are the best opportunities to do just that.

Matthew Holst/Getty Images

If Ohio State somehow manages to pull it together and win six in a row before its trip to East Lansing on Valentine’s Day, its conference record would suddenly be 9-3. The NCAA tournament would look like something of a lock, and the team’s position in the Big Ten standings would be much more favorable.

For now, the Buckeyes just have to take things one game at a time.

Dial Up the Pressure

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Ohio State controlled its victory over Michigan with a full-court press and 11 steals and cut a double-digit deficit against Indiana into a one-point game in the final four minutes with the same strategy.

That’s why it was surprising that the Buckeyes dialed the pressure back somewhat against Iowa, and the result was a nine-point loss that really wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. The Buckeyes tallied only four steals and couldn’t come up with the critical stop when needed.

Even when the Buckeyes made a barrage of three-pointers in the second half, it never felt like they had a chance to win the game because the defense simply wasn’t coming through on the other end. 

Given the success of the pressure against Michigan and Indiana, don’t be surprised if Matta institutes more of it in the upcoming critical stretch. The Buckeyes need to do something to change things up, and this could be it.

Start Faster 

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There is a common thread every time Ohio State loses—the start of the game makes Buckeyes fans want to shield their eyes.

In every one of Ohio State’s losses, it found itself behind by double digits in the first half. Four of those five games came away from home, which only exacerbated the slow starts.

It is emotionally and physically draining enough as it is to play on the road without having to overcome large deficits. In many of Ohio State’s losses, including the ones to Louisville, North Carolina and Indiana, there was a second-half push that simply came up short. Coming back requires a lot of energy and luck, and it reached a point late in the games when both ran out.

Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

The Buckeyes need to find an answer and come out the gates with more energy. Perhaps that means inserting freshman Jae’Sean Tate into the starting lineup after he was one of the few Buckeyes who played like he had a pulse in the last game against Iowa.

Shoemaker discussed the need for faster starts in a separate piece:

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Whatever decision Matta makes, it’s clear Ohio State needs to play better to open games. The Buckeyes have trailed by double digits in the first half of each of their five losses, but they’ve yet to lose by more than nine points. Their slow starts have cost them opportunities to earn quality wins.

So somehow, someway Ohio State needs to figure out its slow-starting problem because as of this point it doesn't have a real quality win on its schedule and the Buckeyes are very much on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. 

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If the Buckeyes want to reach their desired finish line, they better work on their starts.

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