Ohio State Basketball: Must win game for Buckeyes

The Ohio State basketball team must get track with a win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers to begin climbing out of the Big Ten cellar.

After the Ohio State Buckeyes got off to an outstanding 11-1 start to the season they have dropped four straight games since. At 1-4 in conference play the game tonight against the Nebraska Cornhuskers is a must-win situation.

The Buckeyes must find a way to find a way to put the ball in the basket and hopefully that will happen on their home court.

In a win over Cincinnati the first game of the season Ohio State scored 64 points and no fewer than 71 the next 11 games. During the four game losing streak the Buckeyes have failed to score 60.

A look at the stats during that stretch may explain why.

93 of 220 shots have been threes (42.2 percent). That isn’t a terrible ratio if the long distance shots are falling but Ohio State has only made 28 from behind the arc (30.1 percent).

If a team isn’t hitting from outside it’s important to get more shots inside the arc and that has been an issue. Of course the Buckeyes are trying to get Kaleb Wesson as many touches as possible but teams are aware of that and doing everything in their power to stop it.

Forwards Kyle Young and E.J. Liddell need to be fed the ball in the paint, and / or perimeter players must take it to the hole. So often the ball is just being swung around outside the arc, just like last season, and there doesn’t seem to be an offensive flow.

Hopefully that will change when Ohio State faces a 7-9 Nebraska team. The Buckeyes simply have to find some offense, and soon. They aren’t going to win many games from here on out unless they can score at least 60 points.