Ohio State has a size problem.
Hunter Dickinson certainly wasn’t the first player to expose this significant weakness, but he pounded the point home in No. 3 Michigan’s 92-87 win over the Buckeyes on Sunday afternoon.
The 7-foot-1 Michigan freshman had his way on the interior, scoring around the rim and snagging a number of critical offensive rebounds on his way to a 22-point, nine-rebound, two-assist, two-block outing.
The utter dominance of Dickinson didn’t just result in impressive statistics. There was an obvious connection between Ohio State’s inability to string together late-game stops and the big man’s presence on the court.
It wasn’t just his scoring. This game opened with a pair of impressive cross-court passes from Dickinson after he was doubled in the post. It was a preview of what was to come.
“His length and size, at the end of the day, bothered us. So we’ll have to figure out how to do a better job of that in certain situations,” Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said. “Give them credit. I think the shooting around him, the way they pass it and shoot it around him-- they’ve got an older team that you can tell has played together and won.”
The process went something like this: Dickinson receives a post touch. Ohio State, having no player over 6-foot-8, is forced to double-team the hulking freshman as soon as he puts the ball on the court.
Dickinson responds with a well-timed, accurate pass to a shooter, who beats a Buckeye defender, drives into the paint, and kicks out again.
Rinse and repeat until the Ohio State defense has scrambled itself into a dizzy and Michigan is rewarded with an open 3-pointer.
The Wolverines’ whirlwind of passes around the perimeter were a direct result of the attention their center demanded all game long.
Though only credited with two official assists, Dickinson would have nearly had himself a triple-double if the countless open shots he created were added to that tally.
It’s not like there was an easy fix to this situation-- if the Buckeyes didn’t send a double, it was a high-percentage chance at the rim for the likely Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
Bear in mind, this has absolutely nothing to do with Ohio State’s trio of big men. Zed Key defended Dickinson well. E.J. Liddell was phenomenal. Kyle Young was as physical as he possibly could’ve been, drawing a pair of offensive fouls on Dickinson.
Holtmann simply doesn’t have the size available to defend skilled bigs like the one he saw on Sunday. That’s nothing new.
Look at Trevion Williams. Look at Liam Robbins, Kofi Cockburn, Luka Garza, Trayce Jackson-Davis, even John Harrar-- true Big Ten centers are having the time of their lives against this undersized Ohio State team.
“They’re all a problem. I mean, they’re some of the best bigs in the country,” Holtmann said. “Kofi’s a matchup nightmare. So is Luka. So, I think it’s just-- collectively-- we’ve gotta find ways to defend those guys better.”
For the most talented of that group, having a size advantage doesn’t just mean dunking a lot or shooting hoards of free throws. It means having gravity. It means having control over a defense. It means open shooters, open cutters, assists, hockey assists, and offensive rebounds.
Against Michigan, that was as evident as it has ever been.
A large chunk of the Wolverines’ 11 made 3-pointers, 20-plus open looks from the outside, 19 assists, 10 offensive rebounds, and 19 made free throws were a result of Ohio State’s intense focus on defending Dickinson in the paint.
“We’ll have to look at some things and see,” Holtmann said of his team’s crippling size deficiency on Sunday. “Again, I think a lot’s being made of that, but I think there were other guys that impacted us, in a significant way, that we have to try to take away.”
Right now, size is just an occasional issue for this very good Ohio State team.
But its true impact may be felt in the games that matter most.
