For about 30 minutes, the Ohio State men’s basketball team was admirably navigating life without John Mobley Jr. It was midway through the second half in Nashville, Tennessee, and Bruce Thornton had poured in 26 points to push the Buckeyes ahead of No. 15 Virginia 59-53 to almost single-handedly account for the absence of his sophomore backcourt mate.
It was unsustainable. As Thornton wore down, so did Ohio State’s hopes of securing a win that would go a long way toward reaching the NCAA Tournament. In the final 10 minutes of the 70-66 loss, Thornton missed six of the seven shots he attempted as Ohio State’s offense was able to scratch out only seven points the rest of the way.
A lot of things went wrong in those final 10 minutes for the Buckeyes, but one thing they all had in common was the absence of Ohio State’s second-leading scorer, who was back in Columbus recovering from surgery on his right, shooting hand that has sidelined him indefinitely.
“He’s not only been a proven play maker, but (also) at end of games, (we use) his playmaking,” coach Jake Diebler said. “The other thing that is lost in some of this is the gravity he creates on the court when he’s moving, when he’s setting a screen how impactful it can be. Being able to have someone else create for Bruce at times and missing part of the element of that is a factor.”
Mobley will be back before the end of the regular season. Diebler said, and the hope is that it will be sooner rather than later. It won’t be against No. 24 Wisconsin on Feb. 17, however, as the Buckeyes try to avenge a 10-point road loss to the Badgers in a game where Mobley was just 1 for 8 from 3-point range.
For the season, the second-year guard is averaging 15.1 points, shooting 40.0% from 3-point range (70 for 175) and is second on the team in assists (2.8 per game).
In his absence against Virginia, redshirt sophomore Taison Chatman made his first career start and set a new career high for minutes played by a wide margin.
Chatman was on the floor for 30:30, just shy of 10 minutes more than his previous career high, but finished with only 4 points, one rebound, one assist and two turnovers. He played the final 12:04 of the game and had a turnover, a missed shot, a rebound and a foul while helping the Buckeyes navigate Virginia’s full-court pressure.
It took a toll.
“It was clear that part of their game plan when they saw John was out was to really press more,” Diebler said. “Taison showed an ability to play through some fatigue. He did some real positive things for us.”
As both teams turned the final 10 minutes of the game into a defensive slugfest, Ohio State struggled to take care of the ball. The Buckeyes had only eight turnovers, but five of them were in the final 8:37. In one stretch, Ohio State turned the ball over on four of five possessions yet still tied the game at 61 on a Thornton jumper with 5:08 left that proved to be his final points of the night.
Virginia did it by committing to doubling Thornton on ball screens, and neither Chatman nor redshirt sophomore guard Gabe Cupps, who had three assists in 12:43 off the bench, were able to change the situation the way Mobley would have reasonably been expected to.
“We’ve got to execute with some screening actions and get some movement to get an advantage,” Diebler said on his Feb. 16 radio show. “Some of that, we’ve relied on John to play a factor. The way the game unfolded for some of our guys who weren’t quite their best, that allowed Virginia to really key on Bruce.
“We would’ve been more familiar with it as a unit with (Mobley) out there, but it’s no excuse. We’ve got to be able to execute better. It certainly impacted us. I thought it impacted us too much.”
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How did John Mobley Jr.’s absence affect Ohio State in Virginia loss?
Reporting by Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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