Clearly at a major crossroads of the 23-24 season, Ohio State’s run of misfortune continued, dropping their 3rd straight and 6th in 7 opportunities as #14 Illinois came to Columbus and defeated the reeling Buckeyes 87-75, dropping Ohio State to 13-8, 3-7. Illinois improved to 16-5, 7-3 with the win. 52% shooting and 7 triples keyed the Illini, while Ohio State shot it at a 50% clip but just 4 of 12 from deep and combined with a 36-28 rebounding edge led Illinois to cruise to a relatively easy win in Columbus. Illinois’ rebounding edge included 11 of the offensive variety creating 14 second chance points that hurt Ohio State’s chances of stringing together enough defensive stops to come away with a win. Marcus Domask and Terrence Shannon, playing despite facing legal issues, led Illinois with 23 each, while Ty Rodgers added 13. Jamison Battle led Ohio State with 21 and Roddy Gayle added 20. Evan Mahaffey chipped in 13 in the loss. 

Ohio State got on the board first as Jamison Battle used a down screen to get to the rim and lay it in. Illinois answered on their first offensive set, creating space with a back screen to get an easy dunk. A Roddy Gayle jumper put the Buckeyes back ahead, but 5 straight Illini points put Illinois back in front. Bruce Thornton got the Buckeyes to within a point, hitting a runner in the lane and Evan Mahaffey gave them a lead when he backed into the left block and hit a turnaround short fade. Illinois inched back in front with a triple before Thornton found Battle cutting along the baseline and he finished with a reverse lay-in. The Buckeyes evened the score when Mahaffey stole an entry pass on the wing and went the other way, leaving it for Gayle who finished with a thunderous dunk. An Illinois bucket put them back in front, but a Gayle 15 footer evened the score and when the first media timeout was finally taken at the 12:19 mark, the score was deadlocked at 14. A pair of free throws put Illinois back in front before the lead changed hands again when Battle knocked down a three from the right wing, using a Zed Key screen to create space. An Illinois bucket preceded a pair of Key free throws keeping the lead on the Scarlet and Gray side of the scoreboard. Gayle hit a jumper at the top of the lane to extend the lead before a pair of Illini free throws cut the lead back to 1. Key scored off the glass from the right block to up the lead one again to 3. An Illinois triple at the end of the shot clock re-tied the score, but on the other end, Mahaffey got to the left block and scored through contact and with Mahaffey due to head to the stripe, the under 8 media timeout was called with Ohio State leading a back and forth game, 25-23. Mahaffey completed the old-fashioned three point play out of the timeout to increase the Buckeye margin to 3. The lead went to 5 when Battle grabbed a defensive rebound and went the length of the floor, splitting the defense and scoring at the rim. An Illinois 3 cut into the lead and following the made bucket, Illinois called a 30 second timeout with the Buckeyes leading 28-26. A pair of Illini buckets gave Illinois the lead, but the 7-0 Illinois run ended when Gayle, fouled while attempting a three, dropped in all three freebies to put Ohio State back on top. Illinois re-took the lead with a three on their end, but Ohio State got to within one when Key split a pair of free throws. An Illinois runner extended the Illini lead and at the final media timeout of the half, Illinois held a 35-32 lead. Illinois upped their lead to 5 with a pair of free throws after Mahaffey missed a front end. After Key missed a front end, Illinois scored off an offensive rebound, extending their lead before Mahaffey scored from the right block, Illinois scored at the rim to complete the scoring for the first half as Illinois used a 18-6 run over the final 7 minutes to turn a 5 point deficit into a 41-34 halftime lead. The Buckeyes missed a pair of front ends and another free throw down the stretch, costing them an opportunity late to close the deficit. The Buckeyes shot 48% from the field, including 1 of 4 from 3 point range, while Illinois hit 50% overall and 5 of 11 from deep. Each team turned it over just 3 times each, while Illinois led the battle of the glass, out rebounding Ohio State 19-14 in the first 20 minutes. Roddy Gayle paced Ohio State with 11 first half points, while Jamison Battle added 9. Marcus Domask led Illinois with 11.

Illinois scored the first 4 points of the half to extend the lead to 11 before a Thornton triple from the left point stemmed the tide. After an Illinois score, Thornton went to work again, scoring with a scoop shot in the lane. A transition old-fashioned three point play by the Illini took the lead back to 11, but Ohio State answered when Gayle got to the rim and scored while being fouled and knocked down the free throw to complete an old-fashioned three point play of his own. A Mahaffey short jumper off the window cut into the lead and at the first media timeout, Illinois led 50-44. Two Illini free throws out of the timeout increased the lead and another pair and led by 10. The Illinois run continued as a runner gave Illinois their largest lead but on the other end a foul and a technical foul on Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins arguing said call put Battle on the stripe to shoot the technical foul shots where he knocked them both down. A Middleton runner on the extra possession after the technical, cut the lead to 8 but a tip dunk by Illinois quieted the crowd just as Ohio State was grabbing some momentum. Another Illini jumper put Illinois back ahead by 12 before Gayle split the D off the bounce and Ohio State took a timeout with 12:21 to play and Illinois leading 60-50. An Illini bucket was followed by a Gayle leaner off the glass but a transition bucket by the Illini with a foul stopped the clock and signaled the under 12 media timeout with Illinois leading 64-52 and 10:42 showing on the game clock. The old-fashioned three point play was completed to increase the lead to 13. Another old-fashioned three po\int play in transition increased the lead to 16 before a Battle jumper stopped the run. A steal on the defensive end led to a transition dunk for Mahaffey and after a defensive stop, Battle found Mahaffey with an interior pass and Mahaffey finished with a dunk forcing Illinois to call a timeout as Ohio State had scored 6 straight to claw within 10. Illiinois stopped the run with a point blank bucket before Gayle got to the rim again and scored off the glass. An Illinois three killed the Buckeye momentum and after a transition bucket and foul, Illinois took a 75-60 lead into the under 8 media timeout with the outcome in hand. Out of the timeout, the free throw dropped to complete yet another old-fashioned three point play to increase the Illini advantage to 16.  A Battle 3 cut the lead to 13. Devin Royal split a pair of free throws to trim the lead to 12, but a long Illinois 3 ended the run and once again killed the Buckeye momentum. A transition lay in by Battle and a goaltending call sent the teams to the benches for the final media timeout with the Illini leading 79-66. After an Illini score in heavy traffic, Royal scored at the rim. A defensive stop and a short Royal baseline jumper trimmed the lead to 11, but a pair of free throws increased the lead back to 13. A Battle triple cut the lead to 10 but with just 1:53 to play and Ohio State took a timeout. A fade away banked in for Illinois and Ohio State turned it back over to Illinois after an errant inbounds play under their own bucket sealing any thoughts of a miracle. A pair of freebies by Illinois and a Royal banker at the rim completed the scoring in yet another Buckeye loss. 

Well folks, I’ve consistently pushed back but it may be time. The Chris Holtmann era is quickly coming to a close. They have suffered yet another January swoon (2-6) as the losses keep piling up. This one may have been a little more expected but it’s the accumulation of the losses and the way they’ve lost the last three that’s particularly concerning. They are obviously one of the youngest teams in America and going against one of the more veteran teams in college basketball, they showed some fight on the offensive end, particularly Roddy Gayle. A lot of his output was one on one off the dribble drive and scores with sheer will but they didn’t get much of anything from Bruce Thornton who seems to be wearing down again similar to what happened to him a year ago at this time. He lacks legs on his jump shots and his first step off the bounce looks to be a half step slower than it was earlier in the year. They shot the ball overall better than they have in recent games, but defensively they just didn’t have the physicality to match the veteran Illini team. Obviously this is a good Illinois team they played tonight and not a team that you want to see when things aren’t going well, but you have to play who’s on the schedule and if they had taken care of business against the also-rans of the conference this season, a game like this wouldn’t have been magnified as much as it is. Now they have to go on the road to another difficult environment, and even though Iowa isn’t a great team, it’s another road game and the Buckeyes haven’t won a game in over a year on an opponent’s home floor. While there are games to play, the way the schedule is lining up in the month of February, it’s going to take nothing short of a miracle to turn this around. I have defended Chris Holtmann because I genuinely think he’s a great human being and recruits class kids, but at the end of the day, it’s a results oriented business and unfortunately he just hasn’t gotten it done.  He knows it better than anyone and he is clearly giving everything he has to this job, but the breaks just haven’t gone his way. We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out, but unless this team does a complete 180, a coaching change may very well be in the near future. 

The Buckeyes head back on the road to Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes on Friday night.  Tip time is scheduled for 7PM, airing on FS1.

-Jason Harris