Ohio State will look to put Thursday’s embarrassing loss to Northwestern behind them when they take on UCLA this afternoon.
Jake Diebler will be hoping his team has a short memory when they hit the road to take on the UCLA Bruins this afternoon. With the 70-49 loss to Northwestern in Columbus on Thursday night, Ohio State has now lost three of their last four games.
Aside from leading in the first few minutes of the game, the Buckeyes weren’t competitive on Thursday night. After heading into the halftime break trailing the Wildcats 31-24, the deficit got even worse not long after halftime, as Northwestern opened up the second half on a 12-0 run.
The win was Northwestern’s third-straight over Ohio State, marking the first time since 1966-67 that the Wildcats have won three consecutive games over the Buckeyes. Prior to Thursday night’s contest, Northwestern not only had lost six of their previous seven games, they were also 0-8 in true road games this season.
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About the only bright spot for Ohio State in the loss to Northwestern was Micah Parrish, who finished with a team-high 16 points. The San Diego State transfer has been playing some of his best basketball of the season over the last few games, scoring at least 16 points in three of the last four games.
The only other Buckeye to reach double figures in scoring in Thursday’s loss was Bruce Thornton. The junior guard scored 13 points, and now has scored at least 10 points in all but three games this season. Thornton is leading the team with 17.1 points per game this season, and his 1,384 career points is tied with Brian Brown for 26th-most in school history.
There were a few Buckeyes who really struggled on Thursday night. Devin Royal had his worst game of the season, missing all four of his field goal attempts, finishing with four points. The Pickerington native might be hitting a bit of a wall after playing so well early in the season.
Royal has reached double figures in scoring in just one of his last five games. The sophomore also hasn’t been much of a factor on the glass of late, as he hasn’t secured more than five rebounds in a game in each of Ohio State’s four games. Despite the recent rebounding slump, Royal still leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game this season.
Along with Royal, John Mobley Jr. had a game he’d love to forget against Northwestern. The freshman failed to hit a three-pointer in a game for the first time in his Ohio State career. The four points Mobley scored in the loss was his second-lowest total of the season, with the only worse game coming back in December when he scored three points against Rutgers. Although against the Scarlet Knights Mobley played just 13 minutes, where he was on the floor for nearly double the time against the Wildcats on Thursday.
The single-digit scoring output snapped a streak of three straight games where Mobley had reached double figures in scoring.
The numbers all-around for Ohio State were atrocious in Thursday night’s loss. The Buckeyes shot just 32.7 percent from the field, and were even worse from beyond the arc, going 4-21 from three-point range. Ques Glover had the worst shooting numbers in the game, shooting 2-10 off the bench.
Northwestern bullied Ohio State on the glass, out-rebounding the Buckeyes 36-27. At least Sean Stewart showed a bit of fight in the game, bringing down a team-high eight rebounds for the Buckeyes. To cap off all the ugly stats from the loss, Ohio State turned the basketball over 16 times.
Preview
Much like Ohio State, UCLA is coming off a very ugly loss. The Bruins fell at home on Wednesday night to Minnesota 64-61 in a game they led by as many as 17 points in the first half. The Golden Gophers broke off a 15-4 run over the last four minutes of the game to pull off the comeback victory, handing UCLA their second loss in the last three games.
Prior to the loss, the Bruins were a perfect 12-0 when holding opponents to less than 65 points in games this season. The defeat also kept head coach Mick Cronin from earning his 500th career victory. Now Cronin will have to try and reach the milestone today against Ohio State, who he is 0-5 all-time against.
Leading the Bruins on the score sheet in Wednesday night’s loss was Sebastian Mack, who scored 13 points in 26 minutes off the bench. The sophomore from Chicago is averaging 9.9 points per game this season. Joining Mack in reaching double figures were Tyler Bilodeau and Kobe Johnson, with each Bruin scoring 12 points against the Golden Gophers.
Bilodeau is leading UCLA with 14.1 points per game this season, and is a threat from long range, as evidenced by the seven three-pointers he hit against Illinois last week. Johnson does a bit of everything for the Bruins, averaging 8.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.7 steals per game.
As a team, UCLA averages 8.4 steals per game, which leads the Big Ten.
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One player for UCLA to keep an eye on is Aday Mara. The 7-foot-3 center had a three-game stretch last month where he scored at least 12 points, and in two of those games blocked five shots. Against USC, Mara recorded his only double-double of the season, scoring 12 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.
Lately Mick Cronin hasn’t been using Mara as much, which is puzzling because he had been very productive when given more minutes at the end of January. It’ll be interesting to see if Cronin turns to Mara this afternoon to try and give the Bruins a spark since the Buckeyes don’t have a ton of size in the paint. While Ohio State does have guys like Sean Stewart and Aaron Bradshaw, both bigs have been prone to foul trouble.
Despite this being the first-ever Big Ten matchup between the Buckeyes and Bruins, these two teams have become familiar with each other since they have both been a part of the CBS Sports Classic. Ohio State has won the last three matchups with UCLA, with the most recent victory being the 67-60 triumph in Atlanta last December.
The last time Ohio State traveled to Los Angeles to take on the Bruins was back in December 1971, where UCLA and Bill Walton beat the Buckeyes 79-53. Ohio State actually helped the Bruins open Pauley Pavilion back in 1965, as the Buckeyes were the first opponent for UCLA at the arena in a game the Bruins would go on to win 92-66.
Speaking of Bill Walton, emotions will be high this afternoon since UCLA will be holding Bill Walton Day during today’s game. The legendary Bruin helped the team win two national championships, and he was a three-time Academic All-American in the three years he was a part of the varsity team. Walton would not only go on to play in the NBA, he would become an unforgettable basketball commentator. Walton passed away back in May at the age of 71 after battling cancer.
Prediction
Both of these teams come into today’s game struggling. UCLA has lost two of their last three games, while Ohio State has lost three of four. The Buckeyes are facing even more pressure since they are right around the bubble when it comes to making the NCAA Tournament. UCLA doesn’t have quite as much to worry about when it comes to qualifying for the big dance since they not only have 10 wins in the Big Ten so far this season, they are just a win away from 20 wins on the season.
Is Ohio State capable of beating UCLA? The Buckeyes have earned tough wins over Kentucky, Purdue, and Maryland this year. Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, they are faltering at the worst possible time. Depth has become an issue, putting more strain on Bruce Thornton, Devin Royal, and John Mobley Jr.
Not only is Ohio State still missing guard Meechie Johnson Jr., they were without Aaron Bradshaw on Thursday night. The short bench could be an issue against UCLA, who has 10 players averaging at least 10 minutes per game this season, and no player averaging more than 29 minutes per game.
As much as a win this afternoon would boost Ohio State’s chances of receiving an NCAA Tournament bid, UCLA is just too tough at home. While Minnesota was able to upend the Bruins at Pauley on Wednesday night, it is hard to imagine lightning striking Mick Cronin’s team twice.
Plus, it won’t help Ohio State that UCLA will be paying tribute to Bill Walton throughout the game. If the Buckeyes are going to start off their two-game Los Angeles road trip with a victory, they’ll have to be at the top of their game, which is hard to imagine after seeing how poorly they played against Northwestern.
ESPN BPI: UCLA 67.4%
Time: 3:45 p.m. ET
TV: CBS