COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann and Buckeyes CJ Jackson and Kyle Young spoke with reporters on Tuesday to preview their game Wednesday night against Northwestern.
Ohio State hosts the Wildcats for an 8:30 pm tip-off on BTN.
Here are the highlights of what Holtmann and his players had to say.
Chris Holtmann
+ Northwestern has a veteran group of talented players. The team is disciplined on both offense and defense. They added some graduate transfers who have helped them. They have also had some young guys step up and contribute.
+ “It’ll be a typical Big Ten game. It’ll be a grind and we’ll have to play well.”
+ OSU is always trying to score in transition. They try to score in the first 7 or 8 seconds of the clock. But depending on how fast your team is and how fast your bigs are and how good your finishers are, it fluctuates.
+ They have talked about pulling back on transition attempts because they aren’t finishing well this year. “The make up of our team isn’t guys like [Jae’Sean Tate].” If there is an opportunity and an advantage, he’s never going to ask them to pull the ball back. It goes against who he is to tell his guys to back it out on a numbers advantage.
+ What Holtmann loves about CJ Jackson is “that he really cares about the team. He cares about Ohio State winning. Out of that comes a lot of really good stuff.” Holtmann does also wish he could be more assertive and be more demonstrative in his leadership.
+ It would have certainly helped to have a healthy CJ Jackson in the second half against Michigan State, on both ends. MSU did a good job of attacking the young guards defensively. They also missed Jackson’s ability to hit big shots.
+ Jackson has had moments where he has really, really helped the team, and moments where he has struggled. But most of the time, you’re going to rely on your older guys to get the job done.
+ Holtmann believes the wear and tear of the season has worn a bit on Kaleb Wesson. “It’s hard for a guy who is that big.” Wesson has worked hard to improve his fitness and they will continue to “keep our thumb on that.”
+ Northwestern generally starts two bigs and they are physical. Wesson will have to fight. These are veterans he’ll be battling against.
+ Shooting this time of year is a lot of times about confidence. Holtmann coaches “the quality of the shot” and eventually the shots should start falling. Players work on shots and sometimes they’re just not falling. What you can control is the shot quality. The shot quality has been good “for the most part” this season. It has improved with certain guys, but overall it has been pretty good.
+ “The dog days of February” can often take its toll on freshmen, which it may be doing with Luther Muhammad and Duane Washington. They have played about a season and a half compared to high school basketball, so there is going to be fatigue. They feel it as a team when Muhammad struggles.
+ Holtmann doesn’t know what the benefit would be of talking to his team about the NCAA Tournament right now. They need to limit turnovers against Northwestern and be in a positive frame of mind. The focus is on preparing today to be better tomorrow. “It sounds boring. I’m okay with that.”
+ On Muhammad: “I’m sure he’s frustrated” with his shots not falling. What Muhammad needs to stay focused on is doing things to help the team win on both sides of the ball. You have to fight the frustration and figure out what you can do to impact the game.
CJ Jackson
+ His ankle is “getting better by the day” after turning it against Michigan State. He received some more treatment on it today and hoped to practice today and be ready tomorrow night for Northwestern.
+ Looking back at the MSU game, they didn’t follow through on what they focus on, which is playing a full 40 minutes.
+ They would definitely like to increase their transition scoring, but they hesitate at times looking for their best shot.
+ The Big Ten is a difficult road, so it can hit freshmen harder. Jackson doesn’t think Luther Muhammad has hit a wall. He still has the utmost confidence in him and he hopes Muhammad has that confidence in himself.
+ This team can’t have as many offensive lapses as they did down the stretch at Michigan State because with having a young team, that also leads to defensive lapses a lot of time.
+ It hasn’t hit him that things are coming to an end for him, but he did see a March Madness commercial this week and that got him thinking about it.
+ They aren’t looking at numbers of wins they need for the postseason. They look at each game as a must-win.
+ Jackson didn’t necessarily see himself being a two-year starter and a leader when he transferred to Ohio State. He just wanted to be a part of something special.
Kyle Young
+ They had good looks in the second half, they just didn’t make them. Sometimes there were some bad shots, but they had enough good looks.
+ This time of year is when teams can separate themselves from other teams through practicing. But this is also the time when your body gets tired and worn down, so it’s a difficult balance.
+ Learning the pace and physicality of the game opens your eyes as a freshman. As vets, they need to help the freshmen get through those times.
+ Young is still rehabbing his leg every day and icing it all the time while trying to get it stronger. It’s sore, “but I’m not trying to let it affect my game.” It feels pretty good when he gets going and he’s warm.
+ Northwestern uses a big lineup, so OSU will look at their personnel and how they attack and get prepared as best they can. Just gotta box out better.