Ohio State looking for shots, not turnovers, in critical late-game moments
So much of whatever the 2023-24 season would become for Ohio State rested on the shoulders of its two sophomore guards. The growth of Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle Jr., the team’s primary ballhandlers and offensive focal points, was as critical to Ohio State’s success as anything.
Both have had their moments. But as the losses have piled up and the Buckeyes have sunk to the bottom of the Big Ten standings, neither player has had the ball in his hands on a backbreaking play in the final seconds of each of the last two games.
At Iowa, it was Felix Okpara who committed the critical turnover. At home against Indiana, it was forward Jamison Battle. In both cases, Ohio State finished on the wrong side of a one-possession loss that has it riding a streak of five straight losses and eight of nine as it prepares to host Maryland on Saturday afternoon at Value City Arena.
Friday afternoon, associate head coach Jake Diebler said the two plays were actions the Buckeyes have practiced repeatedly and were decisions they felt good about even if they did not result in shot attempts.
“Obviously the design has not been executed as well as we’d like,” Diebler, who oversees the offense, said. “Some of it is we’ve been trying some different options to figure out how we can best close games.”
Against the Hawkeyes, Ohio State said it had the matchup it wanted. Had the play extended a second longer, Okpara was set to hand the ball off to Gayle for a curl cut that would’ve taken him toward the left block as he was matched up with Payton Sandfort with Iowa clinging to a 74-73 lead and 23 seconds remaining.
Whether Gayle would’ve been able to finish and put Ohio State on top will never be known, because the ball never got back to him when Okpara was called for a double dribble. It was the only turnover of the game for Okpara, who otherwise finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.
“It wasn’t a highly contested dribble and it was an action we had practiced,” Diebler said. “We can overcorrect and overcomplicate that situation, but I trust Felix in that situation. He’s proven to be good in that situation and he has made that exchange over and over again in his career.”
Three days later against Indiana, it was Battle who couldn’t get his shot. Again trailing 74-73 in the final 30 seconds, the fifth-year forward was stripped of the ball by Indiana center Kel’el Ware with seven seconds left.
This one was on a screen set by Okpara that brought Ware to the ball and allowed him to make the play, but Diebler said that hadn’t been the exact play drawn up.
“We were trying to get Jamison on the move to where he could get an angle without a ball screen to either get a shot or get an attack,” Diebler said. “The ball screen ended up being a result of not getting a clean catch and a good look off of the initial action.”
Afterward, coach Chris Holtmann said the Buckeyes had run the same type of action for Battle and he had drawn a foul that led to two free throws. Battle was perfect on 10 free throws in the game and finished with a team-high 19 points, but like at Iowa Ohio State did not get a shot attempt in a critical situation.
Thornton leads Ohio State in scoring (15.4 points per game) and assists (97) with a Big Ten-leading assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.22. Gayle is third in scoring at 14.2 points per game, second in assists at 75 and third on the team in two-point field-goal percentage among players with at least 90 attempts (52.2%, 93 for 178).
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Thornton did get one final attempt in the Indiana game: Down 76-73, he took a pass from Evan Mahaffey and got a clean look at a deep 3-pointer.
It didn’t fall. But at least it was a shot.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State's last-minute execution still a work in progress
