Ohio State answers UCLA's toughness challenge, wins 'rock fight' in CBS Sports Classic
ATLANTA – Something had to feel Chris Holtmann’s wrath.
Saturday afternoon’s game wasn’t even four minutes old and there was a point that the Ohio State men's basketball coach felt his team hadn’t quite translated into game action. With a week to prepare for a Mick Cronin-coached UCLA team, the Buckeyes had repeatedly drilled down the concept of being strong with the ball against the Bruins. So when Holtmann felt that his players weren’t meeting that standard, he lashed out.
It was a dry-erase board that took the brunt of Holtmann’s right fist, but it dished out a little retribution as well. Sporting a band-aid on his pinky finger after a 67-60 win against UCLA as part of the CBS Sports Classic, Holtmann said he might be in need of a stitch or two to repair the gash the broken board left behind.
“I kind of wish that wouldn’t have become public,” Holtmann said. “I was frustrated with our, we talked about their physicality on the ball defensively and I thought we were just too casual and too loose and I had a moment of anger and punched the board and split my hand up pretty good.”
The CBS national broadcast captured the moment, and by the end all parties could laugh about it. As Holtmann stood on the court with guard Bruce Thornton for a live interview, sideline reporter Jenny Dell presented him with a whiteboard bearing a three-word request: “DON’T HURT ME!”
It took physicality of all kinds to help the Buckeyes withstand the Bruins. Last time out, Ohio State had let an 18-point lead disappear in an 83-80 loss at Penn State one week prior. It send the Buckeyes into a week of licking their wounds, analyzing the defeat and preparing for a UCLA team that still has not let a team top 71 points this season. It would be a clear test of Ohio State’s toughness, grit, moxie and all kinds of other synonyms.
In a nip-and-tuck game, Ohio State trailed by a game-high four points at 41-37 with 10:40 to play. A prolific 3-point shooting team, the Buckeyes couldn’t buy one against the Bruins. For a second straight game, their backs were against the wall late in the second half.
Then Bruce Thornton finished a three-point play with 10:23 left to pull within a point and start a run of five straight possessions with a made field goal. Thornton capped it with a jumper, and Ohio State had the lead at 48-47 when Holtmann called timeout with 7:53 to play. It was the 18th and final lead change of the game.
In the final 10:23, Ohio State outscored UCLA 30-19. The groundwork was laid in the days leading up to the game, Thornton said.
“I feel like we had great preparation for this whole week,” he said. “Our whole mindset was to get better for ourselves. The small things, last game we blew the lead. Just being straightforward with it. This game we locked in, made the right adjustments and we got the win today.”
Thornton said he took it on his shoulders to help the Buckeyes move past what happened at Penn State.
“I addressed the whole team as a leader,” he said. “You can’t blow 18-point games, especially on the road, especially in the Big Ten. We need every single road win you can get. Me telling the younger guys and the grads, all right, we let this one slip but the only thing we can do is move on from it. You can learn.”
By the time UCLA preparation rolled around, Thornton said the Buckeyes were tired of watching the Penn State game because the team they saw on film didn’t match the one they believe themselves to be. Holtmann described this as a “mentality” win, one Ohio State earned by not letting a two-point deficit grow to six or eight points.
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Against a foe allowing teams to score 58.8 points per game, the sixth-lowest mark in the nation, doing so could have been critical. Under Cronin, UCLA is 80-5 when holding teams to 65 points or fewer and now 24-35 when teams get to at least 66 points.
Ohio State had scored at least 80 points in six straight games. Its 67 marked the second-lowest output of the season so far, one more than it scored in a 73-66 loss to No. 15 Texas A&M in the second game of the year.
This time, against this UCLA team, it was enough.
“We knew it was going to be a rock fight,” Holtmann said. “That’s just the way these games (against Cronin teams) are.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State withstands UCLA's physicality in 'rock fight' win
