Ohio State's Chris Holtmann defends choice not to guard inbounder in loss to North Carolina
NEW YORK CITY – For about two seconds of game-clock time, Brice Sensabaugh was set up to be the star of the afternoon. A pull-up jumper from the Ohio State freshman over the outstretched arm of Leaky Black had broken a 77-all tie and put the No. 23 Buckeyes ahead of North Carolina inside Madison Square Garden, but the Tar Heels had two timeouts and a plan.
Needing to go the length of the court to extend or win the game, North Carolina opted to call two plays. First, an unguarded Black fired the ball upcourt to teammate RJ Davis, who collected the pass and called timeout just across halfcourt with 1.2 seconds to play. Then, Tar Heels assistant coach Jeff Lebo suggested a play the team had never practiced, one that would get the ball to Pete Nance for a fadeaway jumper.
It all worked. Black inbounded the ball from near the scorers’ table, Nance caught the pass and buried the shot to force overtime. And in both cases, the 6-9 Black was able to make a pass without an Ohio State defender in his face – a choice Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said is what the team practices for such situations.
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“We were concerned about their guards getting loose and we’ve always played five-on-four,” he said. “That’s how we practice it.”
On the second play, Black was initially marked by Ohio State’s Justice Sueing, who then turned his back and shadowed the play to see where he could try and be effective. After starting in the paint, the 6-11 Nance was able to gain separation from Sensabaugh just outside of the key near the left baseline, take a step and bury the turnaround jumper over the 6-6 Sensabaugh just before time expired.
The Tar Heels would never trail in overtime, prevailing for an 89-84 win in the first game of the CBS Sports Classic. In the extra period, the Tar Heels hit their first two shots to take control.
Holtmann said that had he put a defender on Black, he believes it would not have changed the outcome of the game.
“You put a guy on the ball right there … he’s not impacting the pass,” the coach said. “That’s a 6-9 player throwing over the top, so there’s no impact on that pass. What you’re basically doing is losing an extra defender. I thought Justice did a really good job shadowing it. I thought Brice did a good job challenging it, and then our guys, you’ve got to move forward in a situation like that and be ready to compete in overtime and I thought we had a pretty good mindset. I just think they made a few too many plays.”
While the shot would send the teams to overtime, both sides said the difference in the game was the opening minutes of the second half. With Ohio State ahead 44-35 at the break after leading by as many as 14 points, North Carolina opened the second half with a 10-2 run that pulled the Tar Heels within 46-45 only 3:22 into the half.
From there, it was officially game on. Instead of shutting the door on North Carolina, Ohio State left it cracked open and eventually the Tar Heels would bust it down.
“It just came down to stops at the end of the day,” Sueing said. “It’s a little bit of a new group, but we can’t keep using that excuse. We’ve learned in the past how important it is to be able to start second halves off strong, get stops down the line. We just didn’t get the stops we needed to get, and it cost us.”
Inside the North Carolina locker room at halftime, coach Hubert Davis evidently repainted the walls inside the arena he called home for the first four years of his NBA career.
“I was direct,” he said. “I was straightforward. I didn’t speak in tongues or interpretation. They knew exactly where I was coming from. That’s the way I always communicate, but I did it with a higher volume at halftime.”
Veterans Caleb Love and Armando Bacot said they appreciated that change, and the Tar Heels turned it into a game-changing opening stretch. Inside the other locker room, Holtmann blamed himself for not making sure his team returned to action with the proper drive.
“I just didn’t think we came out with the necessary understanding of how the game was going to be changed, not just in tempo,” he said. “We don’t talk about tempo. It was more just our defensive energy wasn’t what it needed to be.”
The Tar Heels got their first points via an offensive rebound, then added a Love 3-pointer, a Black drive and then a Black free throw, offensive rebound and Bacot slam dunk. That led to an Ohio State timeout with 16:27 to play.
The Buckeyes would settle themselves with a 6-0 run, scoring on three straight possessions, and again pushed the lead to double digits on four occasions. The last came with 6:44 left and put Ohio State ahead 68-58 before Davis made another strategic change.
North Carolina’s full-court pressure changes trajectory of the game
With Oklahoma State graduate transfer Isaac Likekele on the bench but not in uniform as he continues to deal with the effects of a personal situation back home in Texas, Ohio State primarily put the ball in the hands of Bruce Thornton, a freshman and the team’s starting point guard. Thornton entered the game averaging 1.7 turnovers and had played two games without any giveaways, but trailing 66-56 was when Davis instituted a full-court press to try and shake a few things loose.
It worked. Immediately. Thornton turned it over trying to force a pass up the right sideline that led to a pair of Love free throws with 6:45 left to pull within eight. Thornton would hit a jumper to again make it a 10-point lead, but after a Love basket Sueing was unable to inbound the ball and was whistled for a five-second violation.
Love buried a 3-pointer to make it 68-63, and after Sean McNeil turned it over on the next possession and fouled Bacot at the other end, the North Carolina big man hit one of two free throws to make it 68-64 with 5:31 left.
Davis said he used the press in a loss to Virginia Tech while the Tar Heels trailed by 18 points. They cut it to three in a losing effort, but Saturday it helped turn the tide.
“I would love to do that more,” he said. “I just felt like our starters were in there so much, so it’s hard to do that for an entire game. I’m looking forward to trying to figure out a way to do that more consistently throughout the game.”
Ohio State finished with 16 turnovers. Thornton had a season-high five. McNeil tied his season high with three. Sensabaugh also had three, one of which was a behind-the-back pass in transition near the midpoint of the first half that was easily picked off. North Carolina turned those giveaways into 27 points.
It wasn’t just the press.
“We had some careless turnovers in the open floor,” Holtmann said. “That was probably what was most disappointing, that led to some of their scores. Just fumbled the ball. Uncharacteristic with a couple of our guys who haven’t done that all year.”
Isaac Likekele watches, doesn’t play for, Ohio State
The Buckeyes stuck with an eight-man rotation for the game. After missing Ohio State’s win against Rutgers on Dec. 8 to attend to a situation back home, Likekele returned to the Buckeyes midweek but had not practiced heading into the game and did not dress for the Tar Heels.
He watched the game from the bench in gray Ohio State sweatpants, and it’s not clear what his status is going forward. Ohio State will host Maine on Wednesday, and Holtmann said the Buckeyes are supporting Likekele as he recovers.
“One of the things I’ve tried to do, and I think I’ve learned in this, is there are physical injuries and then there are emotional things that players go through,” Holtmann said. “There are mental challenges for today’s athlete. It’s our job as coaches to recognize that there’s both. A pulled hamstring is pretty easy to see. A sprained ankle is pretty easy to see, but someone grieving over difficult things and challenging, emotional things in their life needs the support of everybody around them. It’ll be on his timing, if and when, and we’ll support him regardless.”
His presence undoubtably would’ve helped Thornton, and while Holtmann said he is worried about putting too much on the freshman’s plate so early, the coach pointed to two other players whose progression could help fill the void in Likekele’s absence.
“We’ve got to continue to get Roddy (Gayle) and Tanner (Holden) to have the flexibility to play Justice more at the 1, which we did today,” he said. “We’ve just got to continue to grow those guys.”
Before the game, as Ohio State huddled up for the final time before pregame introductions, Likekele was in the middle of the team’s circle speaking to his teammates.
“It felt great to have one of our leaders back with us,” Sueing said. “Even though he wasn’t out there, he was out there because you could hear him vocally. He was able to point out things we might not see on the court.”
Armando Bacot wins battle of the bigs with Zed Key
North Carolina’s 6-11, 235-pound Bacot did not score until he hit a pair of free throws with 10:45 remaining in the first half. He didn’t connect on his first field goal until 8:19 remained in the half.
He would go on to score 28 points on 11 of 19 shooting. Bacot pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds, drew six fouls and dished out three assists in 37:14 while generally getting the best of both of Ohio State’s bigs. Third-year center Zed Key, listed at 6-8, 255 pounds, opened the scoring with a 3-pointer but finished with 11 points on 4 of 11 shooting. He was held to four rebounds in 31:51 and had one turnover that happened to come at a critical moment.
Down three points with less than 15 seconds in overtime, Key considered a game-tying 3-point attempt. He left his feet, thought better of it and was called for traveling, sealing the final outcome.
His primary backup, 6-11, 220-pound freshman Felix Okpara, had four points and a career-high four steals but fouled out in only 11:51. Bacot picked up an early foul against Key that limited his aggressiveness, he said, but that changed when Okpara checked in.
“(Key) does a good job of getting in position,” Bacot said. “If you’ve got one foul, a guy in good position can get you low down in the paint. It was obviously an easy opportunity for me to get another quick foul if I was in the wrong area.
“Then they subbed in a freshman, and I told coach I thought that would be a good opportunity for me to get my flow and get into the game a little bit and not have to be super aggressive because Zed Key is obviously a really good player.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Here's why Ohio State didn't guard the inbounder in UNC loss
