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Ohio State Basketball: Why won’t the Buckeyes go with the hot hand?

By Charlie Lockhart

EAST LANSING, MI - FEBRUARY 17: Duane Washington Jr. #4 of the Ohio State Buckeyes drives past Foster Loyer #3 of the Michigan State Spartans in the second half at Breslin Center on February 17, 2019 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - FEBRUARY 17: Duane Washington Jr. #4 of the Ohio State Buckeyes drives past Foster Loyer #3 of the Michigan State Spartans in the second half at Breslin Center on February 17, 2019 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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The Ohio State Buckeyes haven’t exactly been an offensive juggernaut this season in large part due to the fact they won’t go with the hot hand?

One of the biggest reasons the Ohio State Buckeyes are struggling to score points this season is because they won’t get the ball in the hands of a player coming off a strong game often enough. As a result, he can’t seem to get on a roll.

I’ll get to why that’s important later but first let’s take a look at top scoring outputs by Buckeyes not named Kaleb Wesson, and how many points they put up the following game.

  • Luther Muhammad scored 24 points in a win over Nebraska but only scored 3 the next game in a loss to Michigan.
  • C.J. Jackson scored 25 points against Purdue-Fort Wayne but only 6 against Creighton
  • Keyshawn Woods scored 19 points against Creighton but was shut out the following game against South Carolina State
  • Duane Washington had the best comeback game as he scored 20 points against Purdue-Fort Wayne and 12 against Creighton.
  • The second best was Andre Wesson scoring 22 versus Purdue and 10 the next game against Nebraska.
  • Now for the worst. Justin Ahrens lit up Iowa for 29 points but only had one shot attempt versus Purdue, which he missed.
  • Jaedon LeDee has had two games in which he scored 16 points and both were against the two Purdue teams. The first time he scored 16 he backed it up with 4 points versus Creighton and was scoreless against Northwestern the second time.

See a pattern here?

Any scorer will tell you that shooting the ball well has a lot to do with confidence. After a player has a big scoring night he is confident the ball is going to hit the bottom of the net often the next game.

It’s important to get the ball in his hands often to take advantage of that confidence, especially early in the game. Obviously the Buckeyes haven’t done a very good job of doing that.

One recent example is probably the most startling. Coming off his 29 point performance against Iowa, Purdue players were dogging Justin Ahrens early in the game making it difficult for him to get the ball in position to score.

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After a few minutes his teammates simply stopped looking his way. Why didn’t Chris Holtmann call timeout and design plays to get Ahrens the ball? A guy coming off a 29 point game only getting one shot off the next is unacceptable.

Every team game plans for a hot shooter on the opposing team. The strong teams find a way to get their scorers open and put the ball in their hands.

I know coach Holtmann is still in the process of building his basketball program and getting his players to buy into the team concept. However, he has a number of players who have proven they can put up pretty big numbers when they get rolling and he should take advantage of that.

dark. Next. Will 2018 class meet 2013 class standards?

Why not go away from the pattern offense at times and just put the ball in a guy’s hands when he is feeling it?. At this point in the season it certainly couldn’t hurt.

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