What we learned about Ohio State’s loss to Minnesota

This wasn’t how the Buckeyes envisioned playing against a Minnesota team that had yet to win a conference game. The Gophers battled Ohio State all game, as they never folded and kept playing hard.

The Buckeyes wouldn’t be able to match the visitors energy, resulting in a third loss in-a-row and potentially some panic starting in Columbus. The loss sends the Buckeyes to a 10-6 record.

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Head coach Chris Holtmann got his starting center back, Zed Key (even though he came off the bench), but it wasn’t enough for Ohio State to get back into the win column.

It obviously wasn’t all pretty for the Buckeyes and here is what we learned about their 70-67 heartbreaking loss to Minnesota.

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I’m not one to complain much about the referees, but the foul call against Bruce Thornton was horrendous. Thornton got all ball. No doubt about it. If there is a call in that situation, it should have been a jump ball. This didn’t cost the Buckeyes the game, but in the situation, it may have seemed like a massive bad call. There were more reasons why the Buckeyes dropped this game.

The Buckeyes have one of the top offenses in the country but struggled again. The offense didn’t move the ball around well enough, just 5 assists. The whole game. It led to a lot of empty possessions, bad shots and overall ugly offense. The reliance on individuals to create shots really hurt, especially when the shots weren’t falling. The 37.5% shooting from the field was bad, especially given the opponent. Holtmann needs to fix this fast.

Take away regular starter Key’s numbers and add Eugene Brown’s and it was another bad performance from the bench. Tanner Holden had an and-one, Brown one bucket and that was the groups complete contribution in the scoring column. When the starters aren’t having good games, the bench has to help. They didn’t. It wasn’t just in the scoring column either, they grabbed just 6 rebounds and turned the ball over three times.

While wearing a large black brace on his left shoulder, it seemed like Key was a bit tentative to mix things up down low. His injury must still be bothering him but not enough to keep him away from the court. Key was held out of the last game against Maryland and the Buckeyes clearly missed their big man. This contest Key gutted his way through to put up 10 points and 8 boards, but again, it wasn’t a normal effort from him. He won’t keep coming off the bench going forward, but it was nice to see Key return back to action.

It’s a lot to ask a freshman to carry the offensive load. Holtmann has asked Brice Sensabaugh to do that and he might be hitting the wall. A very bad shooting performance, his second in-a-row, might be getting to his head. Sensabaugh has been taking a lot of iso-jumpers, not in rhythm of the offense leading to some tough shots. He needs to get back to what was working for him earlier in the year, getting open shots with ball movement. The one-on-one play works on certain occasions but every possession isn’t the solution. Yes, he scored 18 points but it took him 18 shots to do so. Sensabaugh even on his bad days is still a star but this team needs him to be more efficient.