Horseshoes and hand grenades: Ohio State racking up moral victories, real losses in the Big Ten

The Buckeyes are good enough to hang with great teams, but a 30-point loss and a three-point loss count just the same.

After working for 20 minutes to whittle a 17-point halftime deficit down to just a single point Tuesday night in Madison, Ohio State’s final desperation play ended on a cruel and ironic note — a whistle.

Down two points with 1.5 seconds remaining, Evan Mahaffey passed the ball 80 feet down the court to Devin Royal, who caught the ball and spun to hoist up a potential game-winning three-pointer. The shot fell short, but even before the ball began its descent, a whistle was blown and an official pointed to the exact spot where Royal’s right foot stepped on the thin sideline, directly in front of the visitors’ bench.

Considering the circumstances and time remaining it was a worthwhile gamble, but it was still another unforced turnover for an Ohio State team that came into Tuesday night’s game as the second-worst team in the conference at making unforced turnovers. The Buckeyes are turning the ball over on their own accord (not due to an opponent stealing the ball) on 9.9% of their possessions this season, or basically one in every 10 possessions, per KenPom.

On Tuesday night, Ohio State traveled five times in the first half, three of which were Royal. The Buckeyes were also called for two moving screen penalties that handed the ball back over to No. 24 Wisconsin. It ultimately helped dig the Buckeyes a 17-point hole at halftime.

Ohio State only turned the ball over two times the entire second half, cutting the Wisconsin lead from 17 down to one point in the final seconds. The 24th-ranked Badgers held on to win it, 70-68.

This game comes five days after Ohio State led the then-No. 15 Oregon Ducks for 30+ minutes at home, only to see its slim lead dissipate in the final 90 seconds and lose 73-71.

That Oregon game, of course, was less than a week after Ohio State erased a 14-point deficit to the then-No. 18 Michigan State Spartans at home, charging back in the final minutes to re-take the lead only to fall by seven points, 69-62.

Jake Diebler’s first Ohio State team has had segments of play this season where it has looked like an unstoppable force at both ends of the floor, rotating perfectly to hawk to the basketball on defense before sprinting the other way and scoring in a swift and overwhelming fast break.

Ohio State outscored Wisconsin 48-33 in the second half Tuesday night on the Badgers’ home floor, while shooting over 50% and only turning the ball over two times.

The Buckeyes sent the then fourth-ranked Kentucky Wildcats to the mat with a first round sucker punch straight to the jaw in the CBS Sports Classic on December 21, and they never recovered as Ohio State cruised to an 85-65 win. There was never a moment during that game Ohio State was in any danger of losing to its top-five opponent.

There have also been segments of play this season where Jake Dieblers’ Buckeyes look like a group of guys who happened to meet up at a local park by happenstance, and decided to start a game of five-on-five. On both ends, there are times when this Ohio State team looks like a group of players who just met each other for the very first time that same day.

It’s baffling and frustrating. But when they look good, they look very good.

Ohio State is now 2-4 in the Big Ten, with its last three losses coming by a combined 11 points. In all three losses, Ohio State was within one possession of their opponent with three minutes to go or less. They did not close any of these games, and two of them were at home.

At 2-4, Ohio State still has 14 Big Ten games to go, plus (hopefully) the Big Ten Tournament to earn some extra credit.

Last season, Ohio State began the year 4-10 in conference play before catching fire and nearly making the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team.

Before Tuesday night’s loss to Wisconsin, 47 of the 51 online “bracketology” models had the 10-6 Buckeyes in the NCAA Tournament, per Bracket Matrix. With a seventh loss tacked on, that number might dip a little bit Wednesday morning, but it does not change that Ohio State is right there in the mix for its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2022.

They’re teetering on the edge of making it or not making it right now, with 14 games remaining to solidify that case and get on the right side of the line. But the wins have to start stacking up, pronto.

Growth is good. Taking positives from disappointment is good. But at the end of the day a two-point loss is the same as a 20-point loss and a 200-point loss.

“We’re fighting for growth, but we’re fighting for results, too.” Diebler said following the Oregon loss last week.

“We have to win.”