WASHINGTON — The season that began with high hopes and the promise that the substandard 2015-16 season was behind them quickly turned sour and finally ended unceremoniously in the nation’s capital on the first day of the Big Ten tournament when the Ohio State Buckeyes lost to the No. 14 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 66-57.
As was the case as the season wore on, the Buckeyes were unable or unwilling to make the adjustments necessary to finish off games. Their season-long inconsistency and unbecoming play amounted to the same thing that this game will be viewed as: being left behind in the dust of a conference they once presided over.
Nothing went right for Ohio State (17-15, 7-12) after opening the game on a 15-5 run in 3:48 against the conference’s bottom-ranked program. After an offensive rebound and timeout, Rutgers planted its foot in the ground to stage a comeback. The Scarlet Knights proceeded to outscore the Buckeyes 24-17, out-rebound them 11-3, and outwork them throughout the remainder of the half on their way to their first tournament win since joining the Big Ten three years ago.
"We got off to a really good start. We went a stretch there where we weren't scoring,” coach Thad Matta said. “The rebounding was just something that we had no toughness to go get the basketball.”
“Toughness” was a common theme after the loss for the team that so often this year allowed close games to slip away.
“We weren't the aggressor,” sophomore C.J. Jackson said. “Going against any team like [Rutgers], a team pressuring, a team trying to get in your face and disrupt you, they're going to be successful with that if you're not on the attack right back, like we weren't tonight.”
Jackson finished with 12 points, second to Jae’Sean Tate, but there was only so much the former transfer who began the season on the bench could do when his teammates, veterans of many Big Ten conference tournament games arrived with too little, too late.
JaQuan Lyle, the Buckeyes' leading scorer over the final three regular season games, could only muster five points, getting his first two with 5:41 remaining in the game. Center Trevor Thompson hauled in 11 of the team's 31 rebounds to go with eight points before fouling out with 0:32 remaining. Kam Williams, who stole playing time from Lyle in February while averaging seven points per game, finished with three.
Rutgers (15-18, 3-15), dominated the counting statistics and certainly earned its second-round berth, but the Scarlet Knights made every effort to allow the despondent Buckeyes back in the game, including holding just a 43-41 lead with 12:38 remaining in the game after a 1-for-9 shooting streak.
Only one Scarlet Knight produced more than 10 points in the team's fourth win of 2017: junior guard Nigel Johnson, who started the game on the bench, but chipped in 22 points and went a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line, more than doubling his all of his makes from the charity stripe in February.
Late in the game, trailing 55-53, and 5:43 span that produced just five points for the Buckeyes, Marc Loving hauled in his only rebound of the game and quickly turned it up quarter to a speeding Jackson, who saw an open Tate and potential tie game, only to send the ball out of bounds. The Scarlet Knights proceeded the other direction, where Johnson hit his third and the team's sixth 3-pointer to create a five-point lead with 2:18 left to play.
“There were a couple of things that happened out there tonight that I don't know if I've ever seen before,” Matta said. “Well, I have seen it because it always happens to us this year.”
On Wednesday night; as they were in all five of their most recent losses; were within five points in the final five minutes, and again failed at the opportunity to create momentum as the game slipped through their fingers.
“I mean 19 offensive rebounds is a joke and we just never manned up to the level we needed to.” Matta said, “15-of-28 from the free throw line, five field goals in the second half. Hard to win that way.”
The statistical differential is ugly. 17 fewer shot attempts, 16 fewer rebounds, just eight bench points, and none off the fast break. Despite the score, the loss was lopsided, enough to make it hard to point to one facet of the game. And they chose not to.
“I don't think everyone was all-in today and it showed,” Jackson said. “Other than the first few minutes, we weren't really ourselves and it showed.”
After failing to advance in the conference tournament for the first time since 2008, Ohio State's March schedule remains uncertain. They will certainly miss the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, but a NIT or CBI invitation is possible out of deference to the program's national profile. When asked, the normally loquacious Matta had little to say.
“I hadn't even thought about that, I don't know, I'll have to sit down and think about what I want to do with these guys,” he said.
After playing his final regular season game as a Buckeye, Loving was also asked about the potential of extending his basketball career.
“I would love to, but with how our season is going, I mean went, we don’t, we don’t know,” he said as he trailed off into a mumble.
If Ohio State’s season is over, Ohio State's 17-15 record will be the program's worst since 2003-04, the year before Matta arrived in Columbus. It will also be the lowest win total in Matta’s 18-year head coaching career, leaving him and the program in search of success once assumed and now seemingly out of reach.
