Ohio State Basketball: No. 14 ranking, KBD and recurring issues
Another terrific week for Keita Bates-Diop and Ohio State moves up in the AP rankings.
With the win over Illinois, Ohio State improved to 20-5 and 11-1 in the Big Ten. It also moved the Buckeyes up to No. 14 in the AP Poll.
As is usually the case, Keita Bates-Diop led the way in the victory scoring 35 points along with pulling down 13 rebounds. His effort, combined with his 13 point-13 rebound performance versus Indiana, KBD was named Big Ten Player of the Week, his fourth such honor this season.
Now for the recurring issues that need to be addressed, and hopefully will be soon as Ohio State faces No. 3 ranked Purdue tomorrow.
Bates-Diop having an outstanding season certainly isn’t a problem but the Buckeyes’ reliance on him driving the ship is. The Ohio State offense is often stagnant when he takes a breather. I’m sure the offensive efficiency numbers when KBD is on the bench for roughly eight minutes a game isn’t great, in large part due to the lack of bench scoring.
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If you just look at the approximately 15 points a game coach Chris Holtmann has gotten from his reserves it wouldn’t appear this is a problem. But those stats are skewed by the early season numbers players put up and aren’t indicative of their recent offensive productivity.
In the last five games coach Holtmann’s bench players haven’t scored in double figures as a group one time. The last time that happened was against Northwestern when center Micah Potter scored 13 of the 19 points contributed by the reserves.
Slow starts:
This has become the norm and Ohio State fell behind Illinois by 15 points in the first half Sunday. It’s not likely the Buckeyes will hold the Boilermakers for a long stretch without a field goal to get back into the game the way they have been able to against other teams. And I don’t think coach Holtmann wants to depend on doing so come tournament time either.
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So far these issues have been something Ohio State has been able to overcome, with the exception being the loss to Penn State. However, tomorrow the Buckeyes will play a team many think will reach the Final Four in the NCAA tournament. If the issues are to be resolved before the postseason, the game in West Lafayette would be a good starting point.