Ohio State turns focus to defensive rebounding ahead of Wisconsin

COLUMBUS, Ohio — There was a lot that went well for Ohio State against Northwestern.

From his basement, isolating from the team in health and safety protocol, head coach Chris Holtmann saw the Buckeyes’ highest-scoring performance since Dec. 7, 2019: scoring 95 points while shooting 56.9% from the field and 44% from 3.

But at the same time, the offensive onslaught masked what the head coach called “the poorest defensive rebounding effort in four years.”

Against the Wildcats, the Buckeyes were able to record 22 defensive rebounds and seven offensive boards with redshirt senior guard Jamari Wheeler leading the way with eight and no other player exceeding four. On the other hand, Northwestern brought in 32 rebounds, including 16 offensive rebounds.

For redshirt senior forward Kyle Young, this has kind of been the story since Ohio State has returned to the basketball court.

In Ohio State’s Dec. 11 game against Wisconsin, the Buckeyes’ front court was at another level, bringing in 49 rebounds, including eight offensive boards, with Young, junior forward E.J. Liddell and sophomore forward Zed Key each bringing in at least nine rebounds.

Since Ohio State’s return from a three-week pause due to COVID-19, it has out-rebounded a team only once, while never eclipsing 29 defensive rebounds.

With it, Ohio State is in the bottom half in rebounds, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds and rebounding margin in the Big Ten.

“For us, we have to limit those because our numbers haven’t been great coming back from that long stretch we had off,” Young said. “We were kind of leading in a better direction before our break and we came back and it started diminishing a bit. In practice, we have been working on situations like that with defensive rebounding, trying to limit those.”

Heading into a rematch against Wisconsin, the game Young described as the peak of Ohio State’s rebounding this season, Holtmann knows it's something his team has to improve on.

With each offensive board, he said, there always seems to be a scramble or a kick-out to a wide-open look, which, more often than not, leads to something detrimental for Ohio State.

It simply comes down to physicality down low for Ohio State.

“When we have been good, our bigs have been good and physical. I would say E.J., as a forward, has been physical and Zed’s been physical,” Holtmann said. “When we have not been good, we’ve not been very physical.”

It’s a game plan Young said Ohio State had when it last played Wisconsin, and continues to have going into the rematch: not wanting them to get offensive rebounds, focusing on attention to detail when it comes to paint play.

But even though the Badgers have a 0.7 rebounding margin — tied with Iowa for the third worst in the conference — Young knows it's not a given that what happened at home Dec. 11 will happen on the road Jan. 13.

Young knows Ohio State will have to play more physical than the Badgers, setting the tone, just like it did last time.

“We’re going to hopefully continue that and do what we did last time, but we know it’s not going to come easy,” Young said. “They got tough bigs, and we have to come out and be the more ready team, to be honest.”

Holtmann said that he and assistant coach Ryan Pedon will be back for Thursday’s game against Wisconsin and will meet the team in Madison tomorrow after missing the Northwestern game after testing positive for COVID-19.

Neither Seth Towns nor Justice Sueing will be back for either of Ohio State’s games against Wisconsin Thursday or Penn State Sunday, but Holtmann said both are making progress each time he sees them.