The Ohio State basketball team suffers another road loss after losing to Minnesota

Coming off a big upset win over Purdue, the Ohio State basketball team was hoping to take some of that momentum with them to Minneapolis. Beating the number-two team in the country kept their season on life support if they could run the table the rest of the way and get to 20 wins.

Unfortunately, running the table would mean the Buckeyes would have to win a game on the road. That's something they simply can't do. Their road losing streak continues after they fell to Minnesota 88-79 in the Barn. They still haven't won a road game in 13 months.

After playing great defense against the Boilermakers last weekend, Ohio State's defense fell apart against the Golden Gophers. They allowed too many threes and took way too many stupid fouls. Minnesota got into the double-bonus with four and a half minutes left in the second half after the Buckeyes were already down 15.

Jamison Battle played well in his return to the Barn. He started out 3-3 on three-pointers and had 21 points. Bruce Thornton was the only other guy in double-figures with 25 and led the Ohio State basketball team in scoring. Those two were the only ones to do that against Purdue too.

Rebounding was a huge problem for the Buckeyes. They got killed on the offensive boards, allowing Minnesota to grab 13 of them. Second-chance points were in the double digits for the Gophers as well. It was hard to watch Ohio State play good defense for stretches only to give up an offensive rebound and a subsequent three.

Speaking of threes, the Ohio State Buckeyes allowed Minnesota to shoot 42% from beyond the arc. They also gave them 30+ free throw attempts You're not going to win many games with that combination of things. Defense is still a major problem for this team.

Losing like this on the road pretty much puts to bed any hope Diebler has of getting the permanent head coaching gig after the year. The Buckeyes have already begun talks with Dusty May of FAU about possibly taking the job, so we'll see where that leads.