The excitement of playing in front of a home crowd for the first time this year was not evident as the Ohio State men’s basketball team took on No. 15 Georgia Tech last night.
Coming into the game with a 2-2 record, the Buckeyes were never able to take the lead in the 73-53 loss. When all was said and done, only one emotion came to the players and coaches minds – embarrassment.
“Twenty points on your home court; it can’t get more embarrassing than that,” guard Ricardo Billings said.
At the beginning of the season, OSU blamed its problems mainly on its defensive play. Last night the team, however, suffered in almost every area. The Buckeyes were outshot from the field 32.7 percent to the Yellow Jackets 43.6 percent. Where perimeter shooting was concerned, OSU shot just 14.3 percent, only making two three-pointers during the entire 40 minutes of play.
“We look like a team right now that has not been coached a day,” coach Jim O’Brien said. “I do take responsibility for where we are. I think part of coaching is the ability to communicate with young kids, and obviously I am not doing a very good job.”
OSU did improve in one area though. While the team had been making only 56.8 percent of free throw attempts throughout the first four games, the Buckeyes made 79.2 percent last night.
The Buckeyes were able to stick things close to open the game, but an inability to get the ball inside and pull down rebounds quickly slowed them down.
“Our defense struggled the entire game, and we could not find a shot,” center Velimir Radinovic said. “We need to step up and improve our intensity. We cannot go through the motions and expect to win.”
Radinovic and Billings led the Buckeyes in points with 12 apiece. After being down by nine at the half, O’Brien went with a different approach and inserted Billings over starter Brandon Fuss-Cheatham.
“(Billings) has a toughness to him, and I think we need to get a few more guys to that level of toughness,” O’Brien said. “I think he deserved to start the second half.”
Throughout the second half, the Buckeyes would start to gain momentum but it was quickly swept away when the Yellow Jackets forced turnovers and brought the ball back down to their own net. The closest OSU came was within eight with a little less than 13 minutes to go. The Yellow Jackets stretched that gap to 17 before the Buckeyes could score again. At that point, OSU was able to bring it within 13 but didn’t come any closer as the game finished out.
“I recall that there was six minutes remaining in the game, and we were down by 13 points,” guard J.J. Sullinger said. “Georgia Tech had two consecutive turnovers. However, we could not do anything with the ball.”
That was the basic story all night. After OSU forced Georgia Tech into a turnover and had a chance to get two points closer, it was stuffed. The next time down the court, the Buckeye defense wasn’t there, and the Yellow Jackets were able to get closer to victory.
“We’re not guarding anybody and we’re not approaching it correctly,” Sullinger said “We have some things we need to work on just as a team.”
Georgia Tech moved the ball around between its players. Three of its guards scored in the double digits. B.J. Elder led the way with 18, while Marvin Lewis followed with 15.
“That’s the way the game should be played,” Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. “I love seeing us share the ball.”
OSU will have to recover from the loss and visible fatigue by Saturday. At 2 p.m. the Buckeyes will take on Virginia Tech at Nationwide Arena.
“There are so many things we need to work on in practice that we can’t lay off in practice,” O’Brien said. “At this point it’s not about the words. We’ve got to get out and we’ve got to get after it.”
