COLUMBUS — Teams go through ruts. It has always been a part of college athletics, and it always will be. Teams can get uncharacteristically stuck searching for their groove, accumulating losses along the way.
After four consecutive losses, Ohio State is desperately searching for a way out of their current rut. A team that stretched their record to 12-1 is now struggling, sitting 2-4 in the Big Ten going nowhere fast.
“We’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” senior guard C.J. Jackson said. “Whether it’s a bad shot or just not defending well enough. We’re very capable, I mean we’re in most of these games. It goes down to the last couple of minutes and I guess you could say yeah, that’s what’s frustrating.”
Feeling discouraged with the results, Jackson also said this team is simply going through the motions at the moemnt. They aren’t playing with a purpose like the coaches preach, they are “just there.”
In games of late, they are not connected for the full 40 minutes and they fall asleep in stretches with poor defensive play and poor shooting, which then allows teams to go on decisive runs.
But on why that effort isn’t there, Jackson said that’s the million-dollar question that he just can’t answer.
“If that continues to happen, we’re going to have the same results,” he said.
While the problems are numerous, the players believe a lack of confidence isn’t one them.
“I don’t think confidence should be an issue with anybody, I mean we’ve been playing basketball forever,” Jackson said. “So, at this point confidence shouldn’t be an issue with anybody in the locker room and I don’t think that’s it.”
Freshman guard Duane Washington said that despite these results, he is always confident in his teammates and he is always confident in himself, whether he is shooting 0-10 or 10-10.
“We just gotta keep pushing,” he said. “Analyze, learn, forget, and move on.”
Head coach Chris Holtmann has expressed his concerns all season long about this group hitting a bump in the road at some time in this season. Now being in the midst of this slump, his approach with coaching this team through the rough patch is to just keep moving forward.
“Really I think we just kind of stay the course,” he said. “We’ll work extremely hard as coaches and see what we can do to try to put our guys in better positions but we’re really trying to just stay the course.”
Until their next opportunity, the Buckeyes will continue to search for answers and try to find their groove.
While looking for fixes, this Ohio State team is certainly getting no easy way out. The schedule only gets more difficult from here on out.
“It’s not for the faint of heart or weak-minded people,” Holtmann said. “We’ve got a tough stretch here and we’ve got to find a way to dig our way out. We’ve got to all accept responsibility and try to move better and play better.”