Ohio State player's floor slap goes horribly yet hilariously awry

With his team in need of a defensive stop in the second half of its overtime victory against Nebraska, Ohio State wing Jae'Sean Tate tried to pump up his teammates by slapping the floor.

That turned out to be an idea with good intentions and embarrassing results.

Nebraska point guard Tai Webster recognized that Tate was too busy with his floor slap to play any actual defense and took advantage of the opportunity. Webster blew by Tate off the dribble before the 6-foot-4 sophomore could even get back in his defensive stance.

Credit Tate for having a sense of humor about his blunder on Twitter on Saturday night.

Where can Tate go to learn the proper timing and technique for a floor slap? Well, he's fortunate enough to have an ex-Duke point guard on the Ohio State staff. Surely Buckeyes assistant Greg Paulus knows a thing or two about the floor slap, right?

The floor slap gone awry overshadowed the fact Tate actually had a good game for the surging Buckeyes.

Tate played through a shoulder stinger to score 15 points and grab 12 rebounds as Ohio State reeled off its fourth straight victory to improve to 18-10 overall and 10-5 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes aren't yet in contention for an NCAA tournament bid as a result of their 2-10 record against opponents in the top 100 of the RPI, but that could change if they can win at least two of their remaining three games against Michigan State and Iowa.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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