Over the last few weeks, Ohio State and head coach Jake Diebler have made it known that they are aware of exactly what they are playing for this time of the year. At 16-13 and 8-10 in the Big Ten, every game moving the Buckeyes play moving forward is critical, and no one inside the program is shying away from that.
“We know we are playing in meaningful games right now, and we’ve earned that,” Diebler told the media inside Value City Arena on Monday. “We’ve earned the right to do that. Looking at our strength of schedule and some of our metrics, we’ve earned this. And it’s time to embrace that.”
Ohio State will look to continue embracing all that comes with playing for an NCAA tournament berth on Tuesday when it welcomes another Big Ten bubble team, 17-12 and 7-11 Nebraska, to its home floor for Senior Day. Like the Buckeyes, the Cornhuskers are clinging to an at-large bid to the Big Dance following a damaging losing stretch, currently sitting as a projected No. 10 seed according to bracketmatrix.com after losing four of their last five games.
The matchup will be a rematch of the two team’s Feb. 9 game in Lincoln, Neb., where the Buckeyes held an eight-point lead early in the second half only to fall by eight, 79-71, to break their three-game win streak.
Like in many of the losses, Ohio State’s struggles against the Huskers started inside, where it was outrebounded 37-28 and outscored 40 to 26 in the paint. But the Buckeyes were particularly torched by the versatile play of 6-7 fifth-year senior guard Brice Williams, the Cornhuskers leading scorer and conference’s second-leading scorer at 19.7 points per game, who notched 24 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.
Williams often took advantage of the Buckeyes’ inexperience inside by driving to the rim and scoring inside the paint, a strategy that helped him score 11 second-half points and the Huskers outscore OSU 45-32 at halftime. When asked about Nebraska’s star player on Monday, Diebler said it will be important to give him multiple different looks defensively to try to slow him down but there are multiple other players who can hurt them that they need to be ready for.
“(Williams) hasn’t slowed down much since (the last time we played them). He’s playing at such a high level and he’s a big focal point of the game plan, but it can’t be exclusively on him,” Diebler said. “I thought (senior guard Juwan) Gary was really impactful with his ability to get to the rim and (grab) offensive rebounds. And then (junior guard Connor) Essegian is a guy who can score in bunches quickly and change the complexion of games and swing momentum.
“So we’re certainly being mindful of all the strengths of their guys, but we didn’t rebound well enough the first time, and that was part of (why we lost). We have to give Williams different looks so he can’t just get into a rhythm. But he’s a good player, and he’s going to make some tough shots. That’s going to be the big thing, he’s going to see different looks. He’s going to see different defenders.”
On the offensive side, the Buckeyes will be looking to build off their strong outing against USC on Wednesday night, when they shot an impressive 73.1 percent from the field and 88.9 percent from three in the first half and made enough clutch shots down the stretch to close out the 87-82 win. Diebler said that he feels the USC win — as well as the UCLA loss earlier in the West Coast trip — offered good examples of his team playing the way he wants them to play on offense, which includes operating with poise inside and playing with great pace and connectedness.
He thinks this will be especially important against the Huskers, who boasts the eighth-best scoring defense in the Big Ten and held Ohio State to 36.7 percent shooting in the second half of their first outing.
“Offensively, we had a lull in the second half against (Nebraska), their defense forces you to make decisions and forces you to play in crowds and tries to speed you up,” Diebler said. “We have to play with great poise, which I felt we did a great job of these last two games. We played with great poise in the paint. We created some great looks on the perimeter when we collapsed the defense, and trusted the pass and the ball was moving and we did some good cutting. So we expect to get their very best, so for us the focus is to make sure we’re doing that on our end and living in the moment.”
Ohio State will tip off with the Cornhuskers at 9 p.m. on Tuesday night, with the game streaming exclusively on Peacock.
