Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann calls out to the Buckeye defense in the first half of the game against Iowa on Feb. 10 in the Schottenstein Center. Credit: Jack Westerheide | Managing Editor for Design

Analyze, then forget.

This is freshman guard Duane Washington’s response to any loss: Look at game tape, analyze what went wrong for him personally and the team as a whole, fix the mistakes and forget; move on to the next game.

This was his approach after Ohio State’s three-point loss to Rutgers on Wednesday, hoping this mentality would help the Buckeyes ahead of its Saturday game on the road against Iowa.

It didn’t.

The same problems persisted: the fouls, the turnovers, the inconsistent offense.

This led to Ohio State’s first three-game losing streak in head coach Chris Holtmann’s tenure and the Buckeyes falling out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since Week 2.

For the second-year head coach, competing solely in Big Ten play is a different animal, facing opponents in games that seem to mean more in the long run, especially for a team without much experience.

The Buckeyes had a taste of conference play early in December, earning wins against Minnesota and Illinois. However, with the shift to 2019 and a permanent conference schedule, Ohio State has not found the same success.

“I think it begins with an awareness that this is life in a power conference. This is life in league play,” Holtmann said. “You are going to go through some serious bumps and bruises.”

Now, as Ohio State moves forward, amid the most serious bumps and bruises Holtmann has ever had to deal with regarding this team, it has to turn to something the Buckeyes do not have much of: leadership.

The Buckeyes don’t have the Keita Bates-Diop, the Jae’Sean Tate, playing with a fire to make up for what they considered to be a lost 2016-17 season, ending their collegiate careers with winning 13-of-17 conference games.

However, what Holtmann realizes is that Ohio State is remarkably young.

Despite players on the roster such as redshirt senior guard Keyshawn Woods and senior guard C.J. Jackson, many of the players Ohio State utilizes the most are either freshmen or sophomores, leaning on sophomore forward Kaleb Wesson as its main offensive contributor and post threat.

Holtmann said plainly he often forgets Wesson, the player who averages 16.2 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, is a sophomore.  

“Sometimes I forget that we have other guys that are sophomores and freshman,” Holtmann said. “That doesn’t change our expectation and our demands on them, but I do need to, at times, remember that we are asking guys that are relatively young to lead our group.”  

Holtmann said Wesson leads in part by his consistency during games, showing that he wants to be a leader vocally, and becomes an example especially for the post players, an area the head coach said is a necessary improvement.

But youth is something that sophomore forward Kyle Young prides himself on.

“Some people think that a leader is just the older guys like seniors and stuff like that. I think coaches do a good job of kind of making it a point that leaders are guys who step in and teach others and help to make the team better,” Young said. “I think the earlier the better, you know, that we learn these important values will help our team get better.”

As of late, youth has hurt Ohio State more than it has helped.

In the past three losses, Wesson recorded at least four fouls, leaving the game within the first two minutes of the Iowa game after recording two quick fouls.

After only five turnovers in the Buckeyes’ nine-point loss to then-No. 8 Michigan State, Ohio State has recorded double-digit turnovers in each of its past two games, breaking its season high with 21 against the Hawkeyes Saturday.

Ohio State also has not had consistency in its rotation, playing all 10 eligible scholarship players in the first half of the Iowa loss, with each player ending the game with more than 10 minutes on the court.

Holtmann knows the expectation for this team. It’s the expectation to perform like Ohio State did during the first 13 games of the season. But he understands the players he is utilizing and what their capabilities are.

“It’s a balance really between that understanding and yet the urgency of wanting it to happen right now, and I think that the reality is we need to learn quickly,” Holtmann said. “I don’t want our relative newness … to be something that we use as an excuse. I also want to have and understand that we have to, as coaches, be committed to teaching it better, reinforcing it more and making sure that our guys are getting it.”

This is not the 2017-18 team. Ohio State does not have Tate or Bates-Diop to create a rallying cry after a loss.

But Holtmann believes this team has the potential to be that. It just might take some more time and more leadership by the younger players.

“We’ll go as far as our collective leadership takes us,” Holtmann said. “I really believe that.”