Ohio State basketball loses another road game to a bad Iowa team

The Ohio State basketball team was trying to end a 14-game road losing streak. As we've said before, the Buckeyes haven't won a game on the road since the first day of January last year. To be honest, the Buckeyes haven't really come close to winning a road game this year.

That changed in Iowa City on Friday night. Ohio State actually was able to keep the game close and even held a two-point halftime lead. Yet, they couldn't close the deal yet again and made some unforgivable mistakes down the stretch. They fell 79-77 to Iowa.

Iowa isn't even a good team. They were just 12-9 overall and 4-6 in Big Ten play heading into the game. If there was ever a road game the Buckeyes were going to win, it was this one. Yet, they still couldn't get it done because of some costly mistakes at the end of the game.

Down one with under 25 seconds left, Felix Okpara got called for a double dribble. It was clear as day and was an extremely stupid mistake. At the end of the game, Dale Bonner kept getting fouled with the Hawkeyes up three and he never once tried to go up with a shooting motion.

Those two mistakes were critical in a close game. Chris Holtmann was visibly upset with Bonner for not doing better in that situation. Considering he's a fifth-year senior, there's no excuse not to know the situation and how to best handle it.

It's clear this team has no poise down the stretch because they are poorly coached. A team that has better coaching doesn't make those mistakes down the stretch of a critical game. Chris Holtmann hasn't shown any reason to keep him once the season ends.

He's just lucky the new Big Ten Tournament policy isn't in effect this year. If it was, the Buckeyes wouldn't even be playing in that at the end of the year.