Ohio State basketball: January slide continues

The Ohio State basketball team took on Minnesota on Thursday night. It was a game that they should have been able to win and snap their two-game losing streak. The Golden Gophers came into the game without a Big Ten win and were just 6-8 overall.

And yet, the Buckeyes still lost this game. They were down by double-digits late in the game. While they did come back to tie the game, they weren’t able to seal the deal. Referees played a big part in this game after they called a foul on Bruce Thornton to put Minnesota on the free-throw line despite it being a clean block.

That foul call allowed Minnesota to make one of two free throws and put them up by one. Ohio State ended up falling 70-67. While blaming the refs might be the popular thing to do, they are not the reason why the Buckeyes lost this game. They lost this game because of poor defense.

Despite Minnesota not doing well before this game, the Buckeyes allowed them to shoot 50% from the field. There’s no reason why Ohio State should have allowed this team to shoot that well. Not a lot of the shots they took were contested. Most of them were wide open.

Specifically, Dawson Garcia is the one who killed the Ohio State basketball team the most. He had 28 points on 9-15 shooting. Chris Holtmann’s team had no answer for him. The leading scorer for Ohio State was Brice Sensabaugh with 18, but he did so on 18 shots.

This is the same movie we’ve watched for six years under Chris Holtmann. Holtmann’s teams always slide in January and this year is no different. We know how this season is going to end. It’s going to end in another first-weekend exit in the NCAA Tournament.

This team is young and talented but isn’t good enough to do any serious damage in Big Ten play or in the Tournament.