COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Last season the Ohio State basketball team faced an opponent whose offense relied solely on the efforts of an undersized, volume-shooting combo guard.
In games against Purdue, the Buckeyes saw Carsen Edwards average 26 points on 47 percent shooting from both the field and 3-point range. Edwards finished ninth in the nation in scoring at 24.3 points per game on 39.4 percent shooting. He’s supposed to put up numbers, and that isn’t why Ohio State was 0-2 against the Boilermakers. It’s one thing for a star player to play well, it’s another thing when the guys around him perform as well. That’s what led to a 79-67 loss in their first meeting.
“What hurt us in that particular game is he got rolling, but all his teammates got rolling,” head coach Chris Holtmann said. “They had so many weapons.”
Fast forward a year, and once again, Ohio State was facing an opponent whose offense relied solely on the efforts of an undersized, volume-shooting combo guard.
This time it was prepared for North Carolina, leading to a 74-49 road win on Wednesday night in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
It’s why the Buckeyes are 8-0 with two wins over top-10 teams this season. That started with making sure that everything North Carolina’s leading scorer and best player Cole Anthony did was made difficult. He finished with 15 points as the only Tar Heel in double figures and shot just 4-of-15 from the field.
“Against any great player, it can’t be easy for him,” Holtmann said. "It just can’t be easy for him. If it’s easy for him, that’s on us. They just can’t get walk-in threes. They can’t get to the foul line because we’re fouling too much — any great player you just have to try and make him earn it.
Anthony had his moments, highlighted by two straight pull-up threes to make it a 39-36 game five minutes into the second half. But one player — even one who’s a future NBA lottery pick — wouldn’t be enough to overcome a 30 percent shooting night. This win would mark the eighth straight opponent to fail to shoot at least 40 percent against the Buckeyes.
You’re not going to keep players like Anthony and Edwards from scoring, but you can make sure they’re doing it inefficiently. The balance is figuring out if you’re willing to live with them being a team’s only option or forcing those around them to play at a higher level while taking them out of the game. North Carolina had success against both strategies coming into the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
“They’ve won both ways,” Holtmann said. “That’s what makes a good team a good team. But clearly, the defense’s game plan is highlighted with him and trying to make him work for whatever he gets.”
Ohio State was presented Wednesday night with a similar challenge to Purdue last season, and it ended with a more favorable result for the Buckeyes. Anthony scored, but not efficiently, and his teammates were nowhere to be found.
More Buckeyes coverage
How Ohio State hired Ryan Day a year ago -- From knotted stomachs to ‘he’s the only one’
Why Justin Fields’ explosive efficiency earned Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year
J.K. Dobbins can state his case Saturday vs. Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor
Justin Fields headlines OSU players earning offensive All-Big Ten honors
Young, Dobbins, Fields and picking OSU’s Heisman Trophy finalists: Buckeye Talk Podcast
Ohio State families know they’re part of a living history of dominance: Doug Lesmerises
How a car conversation helped Justin Fields and Garrett Wilson establish chemistry
How good is Ohio State’s Big Ten Championship opponent Wisconsin?
Ohio State-Michigan is Fox’s most-watched college football game of the year