A buttoned Chris Holtmann, wearing an Ohio state polo shirt and glasses, started banging his fists on the table in front of him to emphasize every word that came out of his mouth.
“What happens in this league now is that if you stop growing and get better every day, you will be defeated,” said Holtmann. “I feel like I’m talking to my team right here, so I apologize for the enthusiasm.”
He had every reason to be excited inside the State Farm Center on Saturday afternoon. His Ohio State team had just traveled to Champaign, Illinois, and handed over the preseason pick to capture the Big Ten championship, a 87-81 loss on his own court. The win extended the Buckeyes’ winning streak to three games after defeating Rutgers on the road and Northwestern at home, tied with the Illini for fourth place in the conference and improved their record to 11-3 this season.
This, in fact, was the most recent example of the process that he talks so much about bearing fruit in front of him. He saw his players agree and accept his role, he remained committed to the daily improvement he preaches and is now seeing the visceral results on the court he wanted in what Seth Towns considered the most physical game Ohio State played all season.
After two words in the sentence after he apologized, his fists started to hit the table again. Holtmann, who has certainly delivered this message to his own players – including hitting the table – dozens of times in the past few months, has not stopped himself.
“But if you get out of this, you are defeated. You lose, ”said Holtmann. “So the challenge is to commit to this work in progress every day, because that’s what we are. This is what we are, and this is what most teams are, but it is certainly what we are with some of our new pieces and young people who are taking on new roles. We have to be firmly committed to this, because as soon as you lose sight of it, in this league you will be defeated and people will say, ‘Why? How are they being defeated by that team? ‘Well, in some cases we give up on improving.
“This is our challenge is to continue to do that, and I think if our group has that mindset, then it will give us a chance to be better – or to be our best, at least.”
Finally, the fists rested. Point made.
Among those in new roles this season who have become more accustomed to the advancement of the season is second-year striker EJ Liddell, a six-foot-four striker who has faced Illini twice in his career and twice has suddenly looked like a All-Big Ten player of the first team. He recorded his first double-double in the win against them 10 and a half months ago, and set a new 26-point career record in his first road showdown with Illinois on Saturday.
In the past few months, Liddell – who has gone from an average of 16.6 minutes per game last season to 27 per game this season – has dealt with the difficulties of appearing alongside Duane Washington Jr. at the top of opposing team scouting reports . On Wednesday, he missed all six field shots against a Northwestern team that arrested him and specifically aimed at making things difficult for him. Afterwards, Holtmann had to speak to the second year to help him understand how some of these failures affected the rest of his performance.
Evidently, Liddell listened and learned. His 26 points were most scored by either team, and he added a record of his career with four points and three points and seven rebounds as well. He was also part of a Buckeyes painting that was tasked with cornering the 7-foot Kofi Cockburn center.
“It’s my state school, but that’s not what motivated me today,” said Liddell. “They were my teammates. I felt that I needed to do more to help us win today. I didn’t really have the best game against Northwestern, which is why they stayed there most of the time. But I just felt that today, I did everything I could for my teammates. Tonight was just one goal and that’s how we got the win. ”
No one else in Ohio scored more than 11 points, although all 10 guys who entered the court contributed significantly – which is becoming a topic.
Justin Ahrens suffered four fouls before he saw the ball go through the net, but during a seven-minute stretch in the middle of the second half, he punched a trio of 3 points to keep Illinois at bay. Holtmann says he has a saying – “never falter” – that Ahrens followed when he stopped in the transition to his last triple of the day.
“I just don’t know if we’re going to look better than Justin with a wide open 3,” said Holtmann. “I am very proud of him for standing out.”
Seth Towns tied his 11-point record of the season in 15 minutes, making a pair of 3s and then noticing that he is feeling healthier. Judge Sueing, playing forward due to the continued absences of injured CJ Walker and Jimmy Sotos, committed a five-turn high, but also scored nine points, seven bags, four assists and two steals and had a defensive mission in Ayo Dosunmu. Washington drained all four free-throw attempts in the last 23 seconds, when Ohio couldn’t afford to lose. Musa Jallow played just six minutes, but hit a 3-point corner with less than two minutes left after Ahrens missed.
Zed Key, a freshman who joined as a three-star recruit, made Cockburn work for everything. The ever-active big guy ended up on the post over the giant Cockburn and scored an offensive foul with eight points and four hits. He and Kyle Young summarize Holtmann’s stated strategy of making Cockburn “score the ball in the crowd and see the bodies as much as possible”. Meechie Johnson, who started practicing just over a week ago, recorded a game record over-17 in just her second high school game.
“I think what it says about our young people right now is that they really embraced what each one can bring to the team,” said Holtmann. “They were able to get in and play effectively.”
Towns added: “We have made a lot of progress as a team in terms of chemistry and so on. You see Meechie already making great contributions to the team, my health improving and so many people getting in shape. I think chemistry is probably the most important thing. We are meeting where we like our seats to be, and you see so many people on the team coming to life because of that. ”
In the past seven days, Ohio has won three consecutive victories that should propel this group higher than its current No. 21 position in the Associated Press poll of the top 25. They started to turn some heads.
The challenge for Buckeyes now is to ensure that they do not turn their heads away from what brought them to this point.
“We hope to be able to continue moving forward,” said Holtmann. “This is a fun group to coach, because they have that mentality so far.”