Ohio State Basketball: Buckeyes must go off script, be more aggressive

Scoring has been a problem for Ohio State once the Big Ten schedule resumed. Thursday night the Buckeyes failed to score 60 points again.

Ohio State was efficient on both ends of the court in the first half against Minnesota Thursday. The second half was a different story with the Buckeyes once again having problems scoring and the Gophers fought back to pull out a 62-59 win.

What was a bit surprising is that it took a full half for Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino and his players to figure out what Ohio State wanted to do on offense.

The Buckeyes haven’t been pushing the ball up the floor looking for fast break opportunities very often,  just to set their offense up quickly. Then they attempt to get the ball to Kaleb Wesson at a good spot. If that doesn’t work they just move the ball around, usually on the perimeter, to try to get a good look.

That unselfish style of play is admirable, but when teams make it difficult for Wesson to get the ball where he wants it and the shots aren’t falling from outside, it isn’t a very effective offense.

With the Buckeyes failing to score 60 points in five of the last seven games (all losses), I think coach Chris Holtmann needs to change things up.

He should think back to his first Ohio State basketball team in 2017-18 and players who would go off script. That team was supposed to finish in the Big Ten cellar but finished 25-9 and 15-3 in the Big Ten.

As a freshman Kaleb Wesson (10.2 points per game) wasn’t the focal point of the offense. That was Keita Bates-Diop who averaged 19.8. It’s not likely any player on this year’s roster will average 19 per game from here on out, but if they step up like others did that season scoring should pick up.

Jae’Sean Tate would take the ball to the hole when the offense wasn’t flowing. C.J. Jackson would as well and wasn’t afraid to shoot from the outside either.

Kam Williams would certainly fire up shots and sometimes get on a roll. Even 6th man Andrew Dakich would step out of his distributor role and hit clutch shots when needed.

Players were willing to work to get their own shots when the offense needed a boost.

Every key player on this year’s team has shown the ability to put the ball in the basket. Now it’s time for at least a couple of them not named Kaleb Wesson to pick up the scoring load, especially when the big center isn’t having a great night.

Chris Holtmann isn’t going to change his offense this late in the season, but it’s time for the Buckeyes to go off script occasionally and become more aggressive. If that doesn’t happen, a once promising season will almost certainly turn out to be a disappointing one.