Hoops Thoughts: Ohio State bounces back, picks up critical win against USC

The Buckeyes didn't let a loss to Michigan linger, and got a must-win on Wednesday night.

Ohio State forward Devin Royal scored 19 points in Wednesday night’s win against USC. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State athletics)

COLUMBUS — Jake Diebler’s call for his team to play with more physicality and effort nearly put Ohio State’s coach on the injured list. In practice on Tuesday, Diebler had his back turned to the floor while he was talking to a player on the sideline. On the floor, Bruce Thornton and Taison Chatman both dove for a loose ball, straining, knowing that whichever one of them didn’t get it was going to put his team on the line for extra running.

The pair crashed into Diebler’s right leg, which left the coach sporting a noticeable limp during Wednesday night’s game against USC.

Diebler will take the knock if it means his guys responded well to a lack of bite in a blowout loss to Michigan over the weekend. The Buckeyes showed up with more physicality and want-to on Wednesday night, scoring a crucial 89-82 win that they needed to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

“This is a team with similar metrics,” Diebler said. “It’s a home game against a team in a similar spot in the standings in the Big Ten. Most importantly, our guys responded in a big way. They responded with good physicality. I thought our connection was better than in the last game. Our leadership was really good down the stretch.”

A few hoops thoughts on what happened on Wednesday:

1. Ohio State has not played many minutes without one of its 7-foot centers, Christoph Tilly and Ivan Njegovan, on the floor, especially in Big Ten play. But it got a solid 11 or 12 minutes of small-ball in against the Trojans on Wednesday, utilizing some effective groups that helped the Buckeyes build a modest lead late.

A crucial 8-0 run late in the second half that ended on a lead pass from Thornton to Amare Bynyum for a fastbreak dunk happened while that pair was on the floor with John Mobley Jr., Devin Royal and Puff Johnson — a fivesome that came into Wednesday night having played only 14 possessions together this season.