With two straight losses and three defeats in the past four games, crunch time has arrived if Ohio State aspires to reach the NCAA Tournament.
The next test for the Buckeyes (15-12, 7-9 Big Ten) is the start of a two-game trip to California on Sunday against UCLA (19-8, 10-6 Big Ten) at Los Angeles.
“It’s a must-win game, so I expect us to come out and play hard and like our lives are on the line,” Ohio State guard Micah Parrish said. “We have a good group of guys who want to win and play in the tournament, so I think we will find a way.”
The Buckeyes looked to be in an advantageous position to earn a bid before am 86-83 home loss to No. 12 Michigan last Sunday and another in inexplicable fashion, 70-49 on Thursday to Northwestern, which had lost six of seven.
“The way we were letting our offense affect our defense felt almost like a new, young team, which we haven’t been,” Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said. “You’d expect something like that to happen in the beginning of the season. That can’t happen again, clearly.”
The Bruins were saying much the same thing about their 64-61 loss to visiting Minnesota on Tuesday. UCLA led by 17 early and 11 at the half but collapsed late to deny coach Mick Cronin his 500th career victory.
“There’s not much to say – it’s unacceptable,” UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau said. “But there’s nothing we can do about it now. We just have to focus on the next one.”
Bilodeau missed four of his seven free-throw attempts against Minnesota, including two with 1:25 remaining. Eric Dailey Jr. also missed two with 17 seconds left as the Bruins went 9 of 19 from the line.
There is sure to be plenty of emotion inside UCLA’s on-campus arena, with the program set to celebrate the life of legend Bill Walton, who passed away in May of last year.
The Bruins, who are 1-2 after a seven-game winning streak, will try exploit the Buckeyes’ defense with a crisp passing game.
For the first time since the 2016-17 season, UCLA has three players with 70 or more assists: Dylan Andrews (79), Kobe Johnson (78), Skyy Clark (71).
The Buckeyes are looking for a group effort as well. Parrish and Bruce Thornton combined for 29 points on 11-of-25 shooting from the floor vs Northwestern. The rest of the team had 20 points and made 6 of 25 shots.
