Russell, Bucks bow out to Arizona

A March Madness run never seems long when you don’t make it to the second weekend and the Sweet 16. When the bracket was unveiled, it seemed as if Ohio State would be met with certain doom in the second game (I refuse to call it the “Third Round”) against title contender Arizona should they defeat Virginia Commonwealth. The Buckeyes put up a valiant effort against a much better team, but a brutal shooting performance from their star D’Angelo Russell and Arizona’s size were too much. Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 73-58 win, and the Buckeyes now look toward next year with what will likely be a very different squad.

This game was a complete toss-up in the first half. Both teams struggled shooting the basketball and keeping it in their possession. After a gritty 26-25 first half which the Buckeyes led a decent portion, Ohio State was right where it needed to be. Despite a 2-for-11 first half for their star and do-everything on offense D’Angelo Russell, they were right in the game. Ohio State shot just 37%, turned the ball over eight times, received just five points from Russell, and they were neck-and-neck with one of the handful of teams with a realistic shot at cutting down the nets. The rest of the team aside from Russell shot 50% to balance things out a bit, and Sam Thompson led an ensemble scoring effort with seven points.  The Wildcats, meanwhile, shot just 1-of-5 from three-point range

The only problem was the Buckeyes, a traditionally strong second half team, and their star did not snap out of it. No single player is capable of keeping Ohio State afloat aside from Russell, and it showed. The size of Arizona forced the Buckeyes into a 2-3 zone, which only made the three-point defense and defensive rebounding worse. In that zone, as in years past for Matta’s teams, the rebounding was exploited¹ . Credit goes to Arizona coach and Matta understudy Sean Miller for making the second half adjustment. The Wildcats connected on 6-of-14 second half threes. The outside shooting also helped the offensive rebounding. The Wildcats snagged 18 offensive rebounds against OSU’s 19 defensive rebounds, which is mind-boggling. Shooting 37% for the game is not good, but when a team gets half of their misses back for another chance to score, it’s manageable.

With 16:15 remaining, the Buckeyes still trailed by just two points. Then, Arizona went on a 16-5 run where they extended the lead to 13. In that stretch, Gabe York hit three treys to bust the Ohio State zone. OSU closed it to eight points one more time before Zona extended the lead to 19 at one point in the final minutes.

There have been times this season where Russell’s outside shot has failed him. In this one, however, that huge Wildcat frontline met Russell every single time he entered the paint. With 7-0 Kaleb Tarczewski, 6-9 Brandon Ashley, 6-7 Stanley Johnson, and 6-7 Rondae Hollis-Jefferson all in the starting five, Miller was able to throw multiple big bodies at Russell even as he worked to get open off the ball. Russell tried to make a difference in other ways on the floor, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out six assists. But, five of those dimes came in the first half. In the second half, you could see Russell had to force everything in the comeback effort. Arizona wisely keyed in on Russell even more, daring OSU to beat them with Scott and Thompson’s outside shooting or Williams inside. Russell’s 3-of-19 shooting effort included 1-of-7 from three-point range and several point-blank misses when met by larger bodies in the paint.

The Wildcats survived rough shooting from Hollis-Jefferson (3-for-12) and Johnson (1-for-12) because of their balance. T.J. McConnell and York added 19 points each. McConnell also contributed six rebounds, six assists, and five steals, and even the struggling shooters grabbed 10 rebounds each. That went a long way to crushing the Bucks on the boards 43-26. With Ohio State sending the 6-4 Tate, 6-7 Thompson, and 6-7 Loving up against much taller and wider forces down low, it was inevitable.

Fortunately, the Buckeyes did get some scoring from Sam Thompson (18 points), Shannon Scott (10), and Marc Loving (8). Had Russell been close to his 20 point per game average, the scarlet and gray would have been right in this at the end.

As I mentioned before, these Bucks will look much different come next fall. Departing is the senior class of Shannon Scott, Amir Williams, Sam Thompson, Trey McDonald, and Anthony Lee. This class in its earlier years was part of a Final Four squad, an Elite Eight trip, one regular season Big Ten title, one conference tournament title, and won 109 games. However, while they were able to contribute early in their careers as supporting players, they never developed into anything more. Each had their own crippling offensive limitations that prevented the Buckeyes from getting back to the Sweet 16 or grabbing any Big Ten hardware the last two years.

Help is on the way, however. The Buckeyes have a top-five recruiting class in 2015 with help at nearly all positions. They currently have three ESPNU 100 recruits in shooting guard Austin Grandstaff (No. 50), center Daniel Giddens (No. 56), and point guard A.J. Harris (No. 76). Also, 6-5 combo guard JaQuan Lyle was No. 42 on last year’s list before not being admitted to Oregon due to academic reasons. Matta swooped in and landed the Indiana product, who may be the best of this class. The fifth commit is another four-star in forward Mickey Mitchell, brother of former OSU linebacker Mike Mitchell. Mitchell has since transferred to Texas Tech to be closer to home.

The new class of five four-stars will be joined by Jae’Sean Tate, Keita Bates-Diop, and Marc Loving at the forward position, plus shooter Kam Williams and transfer big man Trevor Thompson from Virginia Tech and redshirt big David Bell. Of course, there’s always a chance that Russell returns and makes Ohio State a sure-fire national contender. However, his “no comment” following the game certainly doesn’t lend any confidence to that notion. Despite the rough note to end on, Russell will assuredly be a top-five selection in June’s draft, and I completely understand him leaving.

(Photo: Craig Mitchelldyer/AP)

1. Think the Sweet 16 Tennessee game several years ago. [↩]