IOWA CITY, Iowa – The secret sauce for this year’s Ohio State men’s basketball team hasn’t been much of an enigma. The Buckeyes are a tough, competitive team that needs everybody pulling in the same direction for the sum of the group to be greater than its individual parts.
That’s allowed the Buckeyes to float above the noise that is life on the NCAA Tournament bubble, focused on the belief that big wins are right around the corner even as results pile up that would indicate the contrary. With small margins for error, the Buckeyes have to lean on each other at a high level to maximize their chances of success.
With a chance to secure the type of win that would go a long way toward playing in March Madness, Ohio State did that for about five minutes inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Feb. 25.
John Mobley Jr. returned from injury to hit two early 3-pointers, and Amare Bynum shook off an illness-induced scoreless outing last time out with two 3s of his own. A stunned crowd of 10,368 looked on as Iowa coach Ben McCollum called timeout with 14:48 to play and the Buckeyes ahead 14-2.
What looked to be an early haymaker turned out to be the only real punch for the visitors. Iowa (20-8, 10-7 Big Ten) responded with an 18-0 run, increased the barrage to 21-1, 29-4 and finally 35-9 before halftime to flip the game, knock out the Buckeyes and cruise to a 74-57 win.
Ohio State (17-11, 9-8) married its third-worst defensive performance of the season (126.4 points allowed per 100 possessions) to its fourth-worst offensive outing (97.4 points per 100 possessions), and it all flipped after that initial surge. Standing outside the visitors’ locker room after the doors remained closed for nearly a half an hour after the final whistle, the longest such wait of the season, OSU junior Devin Royal said there was one reason for all the things that went wrong.
“We came out and just didn’t execute what we’ve got to execute,” he said. “Don’t stay together. We didn’t come together when stuff got hard. We went in different silos and spread it out. We’ve got to stay connected.”
His summarization covers the basics of the “how” Ohio State came up so short in a game that meant so much. As for the “why?” At least part of the reason was a lack of continuity.
Not only did Royal return after missing the Feb. 22 loss at No. 15 Michigan State due to illness, but Mobley also returned from a three-game absence due to a right hand/finger injury. Senior Christoph Tilly was a game-day scratch due to a calf injury.
So once it started to unravel, it unraveled all the way for the Buckeyes. Iowa carved up a defense that had rated as the No. 20 most-efficient unit nationally during games played in February. The Hawkeyes outscored Ohio State 44-18 in the paint and shot 75.9% from two-point range.
Iowa was 22 for 29 from two, the same mark Michigan posted in a 74-62 home win against Ohio State on Jan. 23. The two performances tie as the worst defensive effort inside the arc since Michigan State shot 76.5% (26 for 34) on Feb. 7, 2004, and this time it came on a night when the offense looked consistently disjointed.
“This was the first time I felt the offense affected the defense,” OSU coach Jake Diebler said. “We left some guys on islands defensively and didn’t execute some coverage well enough, stuff that we’ve been doing all year and really have been doing better lately. We played hard but it wasn’t enough connection for us out there on either side of the ball against a good team, and you’re in their gym. That’s not a recipe for success.”
Mobley, Royal and Diebler repeatedly made the same point in their postgame comments: Ohio State threw the first punch, Iowa punched back and then the Buckeyes tried to handle the adversity individually rather than collectively.
For this team, that won’t cut it.
“Solutions always have to be a collective one with this group,” Diebler said. “That’s the way we’re built. That’s the way we work. That’s the way we train. Tonight, we didn’t do that, and we paid for it.”
Here are three more takeaways from Ohio State’s loss at Iowa.
Iowa stopped Ohio State captain Bruce Thornton’s prolific run
It’s been a herculean stretch for Ohio State’s senior captain. Thornton scored at least 20 points in four straight games leading into the Iowa game, topping out with 32 in a losing effort at No. 15 Michigan State on Feb. 22. Between that loss and an upset of No. 24, Wisconsin, Thornton averaged 29.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists, earning him his third Big Ten player of the week award.
Against Iowa, Thornton never got going. He was scoreless at halftime for the first time since a 79-67 win against Penn State on Jan. 20, 2024, and finished with 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting in 36:41.
“Clearly their game plan was to get the ball out of his hands,” Diebler said. “We’ve seen that before and handled it much better than we did tonight. I think that’s the disappointing thing for us. Not to take anything away from them, but we’ve got to handle it better.”
Thornton missed both of his 3-point attempts and did not score until 12:34 remained in the game when he converted a layup while being fouled to cut Iowa’s lead to 51-36. Thornton then missed the free throw on a night where the Buckeyes were 14 for 21 (66.7%) from the line.
“He’s got to be aggressive, stay aggressive,” Diebler said. “We moved him around a little bit. I thought he passed up some opportunities in the first half to attack. Did a much better job getting the ball in the paint in the second half.”
Christoph Tilly’s absence again affected lineup continuity
Thornton and Bynum are the only two Buckeyes who have appeared in all 28 games this season. Injuries and illness have consistently impacted Ohio State’s availability report, especially recently with Royal, Mobley and Tilly moving in and out of the lineup.
Getting Royal and Mobley back moved Ohio State closer to full strength only for Tilly to be ruled out after the team’s shootaround before the game.
“We were really hopeful (he could play),” Diebler said. “Gave him some rest the last couple days (and thought) he was going to be able to be out there. He worked so hard to get back out there.”
The hope is that Tilly will be back as Ohio State hosts No. 8 Purdue on March 1. He wore a walking boot on his left leg at Iowa while dealing with a calf injury that has impacted his explosiveness since forcing him out of the lineup for a Jan. 26 win against Penn State. The lack of roster continuity played a role in the loss, but was not enough to solely account for the way the Buckeyes lost the game.
“We’ve had so much in and out of lineups and guys not practicing and I think some of that came to a head today,” Diebler said. “We’ve got a little time now to have some great prep heading into our next game and hopefully we can get healthier and get some time to practice some of these lineups that we’re having to play. That’s part of the equation.”
John Mobley Jr. explains in-game outburst
If there was a moment that typified the experience at Iowa, it came in the final minutes of the first half as the Hawkeyes were pulling away. Trying to combat Iowa’s defensive pressure, Mobley tried to split a double team and hit Ivan Njegovan with a pass while he was cutting toward the basket near the left elbow.
Iowa’s Cam Manyawu nabbed it instead, and as the Hawkeyes headed back up the court Mobley pointed to where the play happened and yelled. After Manyawu finished at the other end to make it 31-18, Ohio State called timeout with 2:52 to play and huddled up. As they did so, a clearly unhappy Mobley continued to yell while standing on the outskirts of the huddle. He was subbed out, and Diebler had a pointed talk with him as play resumed.
“I was just trying to get the team going,” Mobley said of the moment. “It was totally on me, trying to put something on someone else as well. I take the full blame for it. Should’ve never reacted that way. I apologized to my teammates and the coaches.”
Diebler said he didn’t have an issue with the outburst.
“Competitive guy who’s invested in winning,” he said of Mobley. “We need more poise in that moment, but I’ve got no issue with competitive spirit and fire. There’s certain lines you don’t want to cross. I thought he was fine. What I talked to him about is, in that moment you’ve got to look internally first before you go external and that’s a great lesson for all of us.”
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: Ohio State points to lack of connection in blowout loss at Iowa: Takeaways
Reporting by Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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