Ohio State was absolutely humiliated on their home court on Thursday night. 13-13 Northwestern came to Columbus and ran the Buckeyes out of their own building. This was easily the worst loss of Jake Diebler’s time as Ohio State’s head coach. Getting routed 70-49 at home says a lot about your team, and none of it is good. In fact, it makes a good case that the Buckeyes don’t belong in any postseason tournaments in 2025.
Sadly, it was the same old story for the Buckeyes in how they’ve been losing this season. Getting outrebounded and having no presence on offense or defense near the rim killed them, again. Northwestern had 36 rebounds to Ohio State’s 27.
They hit the Buckeyes where it’s been hurting all year, and kicked them in the pants by dominating in the paint. The Wildcats outscored the Buckeyes 40-22 in the paint. They also attacked the rim more, shooting 19 free throws to Ohio State’s 13, while the fouls were only slightly in their favor (18-16).
Their usual paltriness near the rim aside, they also just played sloppy basketball. Northwestern came out on top in the turnover battle, giving the ball away 11 times to Ohio State’s 16. But the Wildcats got 18 points off of their turnovers to Ohio State’s 6.
There aren’t any excuses or reasons for this loss to happen. It’s a loss that will hang around for a while. It could be the reason Ohio State doesn’t get into the NCAA Tournament. If the selection committee is down to only a few teams left, and one of them is Ohio State, someone in that room will say, ‘Didn’t they lose by 21 at home to 13-13 Northwestern? Yeah, they’re out.’ And even beyond 2025, this loss will linger.
If, in a year, Ohio State is 15-12 again and just lost the third-worst team in the conference at home by 21, that seat may start to get warm.