Ohio State Basketball: 5 Burning Questions for Remainder of Buckeyes' Season
Take a deep breath, Buckeye Nation—it finally happened.
The Ohio State basketball team picked up its first win of the season against a school in the top 50 of the RPI when it knocked off Indiana on Sunday to the tune of 82-70. D’Angelo Russell was once again spectacular, tallying 22 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, and the NCAA tournament finally looks like the final destination for this squad.
Even though the Buckeyes got that much-needed win on the resume, there are still plenty of questions to answer moving forward. After all, the critical part of the schedule is still to come.
TOP NEWS
NCAA Tournament Expansion Official 🚨
.png?w=256 "NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship")
UConn's STACKED Schedule ☠️
Report: Biggest Spenders in Men's CBB 🤑
With that in mind, here is a look at five burning questions for the remainder of the season.
Will This Be D’Angelo Russell’s Only Season in Columbus?
ESPN’s Jeff Goodman had some incredibly high praise for Russell during Sunday’s win:
That doesn't sound like a prospect who will be in college for long.
Having someone with game-changing talent like Russell is somewhat bittersweet for the Buckeyes. His presence on the floor makes his teammates and the unit as a whole much more effective and dangerous as we slowly progress toward crunch time in the schedule, but it’s difficult to see him playing another season in Columbus.
After all, DraftExpress listed him as the No. 4 pick in its most recent mock draft, and those types of NBA riches and opportunities are simply too hard to pass up.
What that means is Buckeyes fans everywhere should enjoy Russell while he is still in school because he will likely be giving professional defenders trouble a year from now.
It’s easy to focus on just the scoring (he was averaging 19.3 points per game before Sunday’s 22-point effort), but he is also a top-notch passer. He dished out 10 assists against the Hoosiers Sunday and threw some of the most jaw-dropping passes of the season against Iowa and Northwestern.
Bleacher Report had the must-see highlight for the Iowa one:
Head coach Thad Matta discussed Russell’s versatility with Rob McCurdy of the Times Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio).
"He's not one of those guys who's only going to hit you if you're sitting on the rim," Matta said. "He's going to make plays and that makes it that much more enjoyable but, with that said, he's taken some big shots for us and the ball is in his hands a lot. I think guys are definitely OK with that."
Russell is excellent and clearly Ohio State’s best chance to actually make some noise in the NCAA tournament, but he’s playing himself right into the top five picks in the upcoming NBA draft.
What Is Amir Williams’ Role Moving Forward?
Nobody on Ohio State draws more criticism from the fans (and commentators) than center Amir Williams, and the message boards had to be celebrating during Sunday’s win over Indiana.
Williams didn’t see the court for a single minute against the Hoosiers and only played three minutes the game before in the win at Northwestern. Granted, some of the lack of playing time was because neither the Hoosiers or Wildcats have a dominant big man down low to make the Buckeyes pay, but it is hard to ignore the fact that the two games both ended in victory.
Two victories is not nearly the sample size needed to make a definitive decision on Williams, but we have not heard the last of the small-ball lineup.
So what happens moving forward with Williams as a senior who opened the season as the starting center? It is a unique scenario, but this is not little league baseball where everyone has to play. The best players will see the court in these important late-season contests, and Williams is far from being considered the best player on this team.
He will be used against teams with big centers, but this small-ball experiment will stick around if the Buckeyes keep winning.
Will Jae’Sean Tate Develop into Ohio State’s Second-Best Option?
For all the deserving love that Russell received for his performance against Indiana, Jae’Sean Tate was just as critical in the victory.
Not only did Tate impress with 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field and six rebounds, he further solidified his new starting role. Tate was inserted into the starting lineup before the Northwestern game by Matta as a source of energy to counter the team’s slow starts.
While Ohio State continues to hit the snooze button on the opening five minutes of games (it fell behind by double digits in the first half to Northwestern and 14-6 to Indiana by the first television timeout), Tate has been excellent. He never takes a play off, is the first to dive to the floor for a loose ball and plays much taller than his 6’4” frame indicates.
Tate is going to be on the floor for significant time because of his effort on a nightly basis, but the question is whether he can bolster that with the offense we saw Sunday.
If Tate starts to drop 20 points every once in a while, the ceiling on this Buckeyes team all of a sudden gets a lot higher. No pressure or anything.
Will Sam Thompson’s Outside Shot Ever Return?
Sam Thompson is a lot of things—one of the best dunkers in all of college basketball and arguably Ohio State’s best defender because of his experience, athleticism and length—but he is not an effective three-point shooter.
At least he isn’t this year.
Thompson is hitting a putrid 20.4 percent of his shots from downtown this season, yet he is an inexplicable fourth on the team in long-range attempts. While he may be a senior leader, it is time for the coaching staff to let him know that the three-point attempts shouldn’t be flying.
To be fair, Thompson was a 40.4 percent shooter from deep as a sophomore and 35.5 percent as a junior, so it’s not like the talent and ability isn’t there. Still, it is natural to wonder if that shot will return at all because we haven’t seen it in his farewell season.
Perhaps Thompson would be better off as a slasher and dominant defender than an outside shooter. The 2014-15 numbers would suggest that to be the case.
How Far in the Big Ten Can the Buckeyes Climb?
There is plenty of good news for Ohio State, even at 5-3 in the Big Ten.
After all, the Buckeyes are now all the way up to fourth place in the league and hot on the heels of Maryland and Indiana. With two straight wins and a fairly manageable schedule moving forward before a showdown at Michigan State on Feb. 14, Ohio State could start to climb in the Big Ten.
What’s more, the Buckeyes only play Wisconsin and Maryland at home this season and do not go to either Madison or College Park, respectively. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but at least Ohio State still has the chance to play a role in the title race with its two biggest remaining games at home.
It also helps the Buckeyes’ cause that the Big Ten did not look nearly as strong in the nonconference season as it has in recent years from top to bottom. Plus, Ohio State looks like a different team than the one that struggled in the early losses, which is encouraging moving forward with a conference title eventually on the line.
That is a far cry from where Ohio State was just two games ago.
Follow me on Twitter:
.png?w=480 "NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship")
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
