Ohio State Basketball: ‘Small ball’ propels Buckeyes to No. 19

The Ohio State basketball team has been playing well by playing ‘small ball’ and moved up to No. 19 in this week’s AP Poll.

Chris Holtmann’s Ohio State basketball team has been playing ‘small’ ball the last two games and half of another, and it has been successful. A 75-54 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers and last night’s 77-63 victory over the Michigan Wolverines have the Buckeyes ranked No. 19 in this week’s AP Poll.

After Kyle Young suffered an injury, coach Holtmann has had to rely on a three-guard lineup. Alonzo Gaffney has also been out with an illness. So when Kaleb Wesson has taken a seat, every Ohio State player who has been on the floor is listed 6-foot-6 or shorter, except for Ibrihima Diallo who played two minutes in the blowout win over Nebraska.

Coach Holtmann went with a smaller lineup at times during every game but when forced to he has his players pushing the ball up the floor to take advantage of their quickness. That’s evidenced by the last three wins. I’ll include the one over Maryland when Young suffered his injury in the first half.

The Buckeyes have scored at least 75 points in each win and that’s the first such streak since November. They have definitely been using their quickness to make up for the height disadvantage.

Now for a couple of other interesting things of note during this streak:

Against Maryland, five players scored in double figures, six scored at least eight points in the win over Nebraska and last night five scored between 10-20 points. Plenty of Ohio State players are getting scoring opportunities and taking advantage of them.

Surprisingly, the shorter Buckeyes won the rebounding battle in each game. That’s important, especially on the defensive end if you want to push the ball up court quickly.

Now it’s obvious Ohio State needs Kyle Young back to make a run in the postseason. He is just too valuable with the way he defends in the paint and rebounds. But when he comes back his minutes may be limited and more than likely will just spell the Wesson brothers and E.J. Liddell, so expect to see the three-guard lineup most of the time the rest of the season.

The Buckeyes have played strong defense the vast majority of the season but are once again putting up points by playing small ball. If Young can come back and can give Chris Holtmann good minutes as a fourth guy to patrol the paint, to go along with the new and improved offense, his squad could make some noise in the NCAA Tournament.