If you follow male basketball of Ohio State or, really university hoops in general, you understand that making the NCAA tournament is the decisive test of a successful season. Period.
Make the big dance and your team has done their job. Lack and, depending on the program, the hatch opens under you. Duke should do it every year. Ditto Kentucky, Kansas, Villanova and perhaps a dozen other Bluebloods known for basketball. Gonzaga needs to do so. And Michigan State. Indiana was in this crowd of champagne, but a severe shift occurred in Bloomington, where the Hoosiers should miss for the sixth time in eight years, not to mention the cocovid season.
Ohio State is part of the second level group which should make seven tournaments out of 10, but as I wrote several times, the OSU is above all a football school, and football schools tend to be Delicate with regard to profoundly advancing in March Madness. It is not the standard to see Alabama, Texas and Notre Dame reach the Eight Elite, and even less the national championships. Too busy lifting weights.
Buckeyes should make the NCAA tournament most often
But Buckeyes should at least do the tournament most often, rarely lacks two years in a row and never miss three consecutive seasons. Chris Holtmann has completed the four of the seven -year -old tournaments, which would have been five of the seven without hiding to cancel the 2020 tournament. But Osu has missed the last two years. Last season, they fell short after Jake Diebler replaced Holtmann in February.
Winning an offer in the NCAA tournament at 68 teams is not equivalent to the creation of the 12 -team university football playoffs, which Ohio State should do each season – or else. But it still matters a lot, Both financially – each tournament game is worth around $ 2 million in Big Ten – and as a means of arouing the interest of the program.
Fans’ interest creation is the key to Ohio State, and a team that is missing the NCAA tournament makes it too easy for Buckeye Nation to sleep from the end of the football season at the spring game, uh, “showcase” .
The regular basketball season as a whole is less engaging than football, if only because more matches mean less interest in any competition. In addition, a team of hoops can lose five in a row while doing the NCAA tournament. Try this in football and you are Kent State.
However, if even making a brief appearance in a brilliant moment is all that matters, the regular basketball season is extremely important. You cannot make your way to a season of .500 and expect Charles Barkley to sing your praises in mid-March.
Ohio State falls against the northwest to fall back on the bubble
Which brings us to the Ohio State Squad of this year. Buckeyes must absolutely make the NCAA tournament. It is not a threat. Plus a strong suggestion based in reality. Are they going? Upon entering Thursday’s match against Northwestern in Value City Arena, Osu’s chances seemed good. Each large projection of the NCAA tournament support had them on the ground. ESPN had the Ohio State as a seeded 9; USA Today and CBS had Ohio State as 10.
Then more than 40 minutes of inspirationless basketball, the buckeyes collapsed like a bag floating in the ocean.
Final: Northwestern 70, Ohio State 49. And it was not even so close. Consider: only three buckeyes marked in the first 23 minutes; The first bench points came with 8:57 to play in the match; The Wildcats bench has outlined the USU 25-8 and Nude submarines had 40 points in the Painting for 22 of the OSU, with the majority of the interior score from the guards. It is not supposed to arrive.
Ohio State did not play Boston Celtics. Northwestern is 14-13 and 5-11 in Big Ten. The Ohio State (15-12, 7-9) would have been easily taken care of in home business. Instead, the buckeyes played flat, and it’s a great way to say it. Less compassionate interpretations could say that they have resigned. Or banged, feeling sorry for themselves. Or I forgot that a bad loss at the end of the season (and it was bad) can move a team from the right to the bad side of the bubble faster than you can say, “16 reversals” , which is the number of OSU against the Celtics, uh, ‘cats.
This defeat puts Ohio State outright on the bubble and in danger of missing three consecutive NCAA tournaments for the first time since 2001-2004. He also puts pressure on the four remaining games in the regular season, including three on the road. The Buckeyes visit the west coast for a twofer against the UCLA and the USC, then returned home against Nebraska before finishing at Indiana.
Ohio State must at least spend 2-2 above these four to stay safe in hunting, because the margin of error is tiny, and the buckeyes have lost much of the good will that they had built by going 5-3 in last month.
The Ohio State coach Jake Diebler knows the agreement. Players too.
When you play big games at this time of year, it’s no secret. It was a big match, admitted to dieble.
Despite this, Diebs stressed earlier in the week he was careful not to mention the NCAA tournament before each match. Rather, he wants it to be a constant constant buzz in the background.
“I do not think you can claim that things do not exist or do not hide it, but I do not need to remind our guys every day that each game in which we play is a big game” , said Diebler.
He leaves this to the rest of us. And there is no claim on it. Thursday was big. A big mess.
“The effort was not what it should be,” said Diebler. “It is not an acceptable way to play this game.”
He has to improve in a hurry or the season will not end in the NCAA but the nit. And that is unacceptable.
roller@dispatch.com
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This article originally appeared on the Dispatch of Columbus: Ohio State male basketball loses ugly to risk a burst of bubbles from the NCAA.
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