Ohio State Basketball: Hopefully Bucks learned from tournament play

The Ohio State Buckeyes exceeded expectations, and with lessons learned from losing in tournament play they could be a force next season.

Although it has to be considered a successful season for the Ohio State Buckeyes, Chris Holtmann is still in the process of building his basketball program. Lessons learned from the successes and failures in both the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments should certainly help the process.

The Buckeyes made ‘The Dance’ with a win over Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament. They were then knocked out by the Michigan State Spartans coached by one of the best when it comes to winning games in March.

Ohio State then pulled off a first round upset over the #6 seed Iowa State Cyclones before falling to the Houston Cougars. Both teams the Buckeyes lost to had a veteran squad with a coach who had plenty of tournament experience.

Coach Holtmann and his players should try to learn how to win in March from Tom Izzo though. He runs a clean program, while Kelvin Sampson has had issues at different stops, and nobody wants to face an Izzo coached team in the NCAA Tournament.

The Spartans sometimes get off to a rough start early in the season because coach Izzo is teaching his players how they need to play in March, and there are always new players in the mix. He understands the things they have to do by the end of the season so he ingrains those in them early.

Here is what you can expect from Michigan State next March and every one afterwards, as well as how Ohio State stacks up at the moment.

The Spartans will always battle on defense. Chris Holtmann has his players doing that pretty consistently but they could improve some.

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They will have a high percentage of good possessions. The Buckeyes made too many lazy passes, and ones from bad angles, during the regular season and in tournament play. They also take too long to get into the offensive flow quite often which results in rushed shots as the shot clock is about to expire.

Michigan State will always hit the boards. It’s a mixed bag for Ohio State in that regard, but the players are young so I see that improving next season.

I can see coach Holtmann building on the lessons learned this year. While he has had some success in March at Butler, none of his current players had played more than two games in the NCAA Tournament before this year.

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It’s often the case that players will struggle their first time around when facing a new situation. Now, even the freshmen have had a taste of tournament play so they will know the things they have to work on to be more successful next year. And they will be able to impart that wisdom to the talented young players about to enter the program.

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