The next opportunity is coming up Wednesday night as the Buckeyes travel to face Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. The game will tip off at 9 p.m. Eastern/8 p.m. Central in Iowa City and will be televised by the Big Ten Network.
Ohio State (17-10, 9-7 Big Ten) is on the outside of most current NCAA projections following Sunday’s 66-60 loss at then-No. 15 Michigan State. The loss dropped OSU to 0-9 in NCAA NET Quad 1 games. The six-point loss marked the sixth time the Buckeyes have lost a Quad 1 game by single digits. (The others were Illinois by eight points, North Carolina by one, Nebraska by three, Washington by seven and Virginia by four.)
This game at Iowa (19-8, 9-7), which is ranked 28th in the NET, represents another Quad 1 opportunity for OSU. The home game on Sunday against No. 8 Purdue (sixth in NET) will also be a Quad 1 game. OSU’s last two games, at Penn State on March 4 and at home vs. Indiana on March 7, are currently projected as Quad 2 games.
Ohio State is sitting No. 37 in the NCAA NET rankings. Typically, teams in the top 35 – and certainly the top 30 – can feel good about getting an at-large berth.
The game at Iowa also pits the two teams currently tied for eighth in the Big Ten standings. The top eight in the standings at the end of the season will get a double bye to the third round of the conference tournament.
Ohio State has alternated wins and losses in every game since winning two straight home games over UCLA and Minnesota in mid-January. The Buckeyes have not dropped two consecutive games yet this season. OSU coach Jake Diebler said there were reasons why the Buckeyes haven’t fallen into a losing streak yet this season.
“Toughness,” he said. “Our guys are connected, and they have a next-play mentality. This is a resilient group. Consider all the things that we’ve dealt with over the last couple months, it’s a really resilient group, so they’re close. That’s part of how you have a resilient group, I think, is you’ve got to have chemistry, but we train for this.
“We work really hard in our program from the day we step foot on campus all the way through the very end, and I think that toughness has helped us respond, and we work on building that in the off-season.”
The Buckeyes played the game at Michigan State without two starters. Guard John Mobley Jr. missed his third straight game with a hand injury, while forward Devin Royal missed the game due to illness. It was expected that Royal would return for this game vs. Iowa and there were hopes that Mobley could be back as well. Forward Amare Bynum played in the game, but he was ill as well.
Asked about Bynum and Royal on Tuesday, Diebler said, “Both of them have been working really hard to get healthier, and sometimes that’s sitting still and resting, right? But they were here yesterday, and were able to get up and move and do some things. So, that was great progress.”
Regarding Mobley’s return, Diebler said, “He’s getting better and better each day. think that’s the encouraging thing. With this injury, there was never this specific date. There’s just kind of a threshold that has to be met, and so it’s a day-to-day thing for him. But there’s been progress, and he is working so hard to get back as quickly as he can.
“It is a finger injury. There are some big words that could help describe exactly what it is. But I just know he had a pretty good finger injury and he just needed some time.”
Without Royal and Mobley in the lineup, Taison Chatman made his third straight start and Puff Johnson made his first with OSU this season. (On Tuesday, Johnson won a court decision that makes him eligible for the remainder of the season.)
It was guard Bruce Thornton who did everything in his power to lift the Buckeyes to the win at Michigan State. He had 32 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals in playing the full 40 minutes. Center Christoph Tilly added 10 points and seven rebounds. No other OSU player was in double figures.
The Buckeyes were outrebounded 43-26 by the Spartans, and MSU owned a 16-5 edge in second-chance points. OSU was dismal on threes (4 of 22, 18 percent) and did not fare well at the foul line, either (10 of 17, 59 percent).
Iowa is led by first-year coach Ben McCollum and, by most projections, is currently in the NCAA field. But the Hawkeyes have dropped three of their last four games coming into this one.
Below is our preview as Ohio State visits Iowa on Wednesday.
