COLUMBUS, Ohio — E.J. Liddell wasn’t satisfied with the final impression he left Sunday afternoon.

He sat in the postgame interview room dazed, wondering what went wrong, something he couldn’t really comprehend himself.

Ohio State had all the energy in the world after 20 minutes against its rival, seemingly overcoming the physical wear and tear of playing four games in eight days with a burst of adrenaline. It wasn’t perfect basketball by any means, but it wasn’t anything a halftime adjustment wouldn’t fix, holding onto a seven-point halftime lead regardless.

Instead, Ohio State couldn’t find a way to respond, allowing Michigan to regroup and explode into a 26-7 run to start the second half, one that turned the tables for good and left the home bench and home crowd stunned.

“(We) didn’t play with a lot of urgency to come out and win,” Liddell said.

And to Chris Holtmann, it was his fault.