Ohio State basketball loses to Maryland, January slide underway

Stop if you’ve heard this before; the Ohio State basketball team has started to slide in the month of January. I know you’ve heard this before because it’s happened every year since Chris Holtmann has taken over the program.

This year is no different. Just three days after blowing a game that they were leading in the final seconds against the number-one team in the country, the Buckeyes fell on the road to Maryland. Despite taking a five-point lead into the locker room at halftime, Ohio State lost by seven to Maryland. 

Brice Sensabaugh has 22 points despite fouling out of the game. He did so on 7-18 shooting. But I mentioned that he fouled out. Fouls were a huge reason why the Ohio State basketball team lost this game. The Terrapins lived at the free-throw line in this game, attempting a whopping 33 free throws and making 27 of them. 

Those opportunities at the charity stripe is the biggest reason why the Buckeyes are going home losers. They didn’t get the same kind of chances at the line and couldn’t stop fouling on defense. This has become a theme for this program under Holtmann this time of year.

Once January rolls around you can pencil in four or five losses. Holtmann never has his teams ready for Big Ten play. This has been the same old song and dance for the last six years. We shouldn’t be surprised at this point. I know I’m not. This team doesn’t know how to close games. 

I see the same tendencies in this team. Expect another disappointing exit in March despite assembling a lot of talent. This will continue to happen unless Gene Smith decides to actually care about the basketball program and have standards for it.