Ohio State Basketball

D'Angelo Russell's college basketball premiere was in an empty gym at West Virginia.

Russell didn't know it then, but he was going up against a full-court-pressing defense that is now forcing turnovers at a higher rate than any defense has in years. Before tipoff in the secret preseason scrimmage, Russell's old high school teammate and starting center for West Virginia, Devin Williams, approached the freshman guard and delivered a message.

We're coming after you.

Russell was about to deliver his own message.

You can't stop me.

"Oh my god," Russell says months later. "That was a welcome-to-college experience. I felt like I got beat up every possession."

Only it was the Mountaineers who suffered.

Russell carved up their pressure. The 6'5" guard dribbled through double-teams, nailed threes and delivered pinpoint passes to his teammates. He dropped 33 points, had four assists and four steals, and the Buckeyes won.

"He never got sped up," Ohio State assistant coach Jeff Boals told Bleacher Report. "From that point on, you knew he was going to be able to handle pressure. To see the poise he had as a freshman playing against his first Division I opponent was pretty impressive."

It was just a preview of what was to come. Russell was already a known commodity—sort of.

He was a McDonald's All-American. After his freshman year of high school in his hometown of Louisville, his family sent him off to a high school basketball powerhouse, Montverde Academy in Florida, where he won back-to-back mythical national titles playing alongside some of the best prospects in the country.

In the 2014 class, he was ranked as high as No. 13 by Scout.com and ESPN.com, and as low No. 18 by Rivals.com. That's the ranking of a guy expected to be a really good college player, but he's not a can't-miss prospect who has NBA scouts evaluating his every dribble and breath. One NBA scout last week wondered aloud if Russell was even at the Nike Hoops Summit in Portland last April (he wasn't).

As the season has worn on, Russell has transitioned from being Ohio State's star freshman to arguably the best guard in college basketball to a surefire top pick in this June's NBA draft. He averages 19.0 points and 5.4 assists. He’s a threat to score every time he touches the ball. He delivers bounce passes that circulate the Internet like crazy cat videos.

The Buckeyes have leaned on him so heavily—he uses 29.4 percent of their possessions—and he's been incredibly efficient with a 118.0 offensive rating. In fact, when you search kenpom.com for a similar season over the last 10 years in college basketball with that kind of usage (above 28 percent) and that kind of offensive rating (above 115.0), only two names turn up: James Harden and Stephen Curry.

Those are two of the best players on the planet, but back when they were freshmen, no one had any idea that they would someday be MVP candidates in the NBA.

	%Possessions	Off. Rating
1. D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State	29.4	118.0
2. Stephen Curry, Davidson	28.5	116.9
3. James Harden, Arizona St.	28.3	115.7

Russell's numbers have gotten everyone's attention, but are they telling us something beyond that the Ohio State freshman should be an All-American and one of the first picks in the NBA draft?

Could Russell be the next Harden or Curry?

---

Just like Harden...

Antonio Russell's first memories of realizing his son could be something special date back to youth leagues when D'Angelo was seven years old. He played on the same team as his older brother, Antonio, who was nine at the time. D'Angelo was the point guard, and Antonio played center.

"He just loved to pass," Antonio said of his younger son. "Get it to his brother in the middle who had the mismatch."

D'Angelo would feed his brother five straight times, his father remembers, and then he'd go get a bucket for himself. But he was always a pass-first guy, his dad says.

This season at Ohio State is a drastic change from what he'd become accustomed to in high school. At Montverde as a junior, he played on a team that had current Florida point guard Kasey Hill, Kentucky big man Dakari Johnson and West Virginia's Williams as seniors.

Last year at Montverde, he was joined by Ben Simmons, who is the top-rated prospect in the 2015 class, according to ESPN. Russell's numbers were solid—he averaged 19.3 points per game—but Simmons was the star, winning MVP of the Dick Sporting Goods High School National Tournament, while Russell wasn't even on the all-tourney team.

Now when you watch the Buckeyes, Russell shares no spotlight. There is no doubt who coach Thad Matta wants taking the shots. Most possessions, Russell either has the ball in his hands or is running around screens trying to get free for a shot.

"It's actually the first time," Russell says when asked if he's ever been the go-to guy.

Current Rice assistant coach Scott Pera was the head coach at Artesia High School in Lakewood, California, for Harden's first three years in school and then was an assistant coach at Arizona State for Harden's two years there. Pera helped develop Harden's game and was the man who helped get him to Arizona State. And when he first coached him as a high school freshman, "He was a standstill corner shooter," Pera says.

Harden evolved into something much more as Hera helped him become a playmaker with the ball in his hands. But the aggressive star we see now who leads the NBA in scoring was not what Harden was in high school. Like Russell, he wanted to facilitate.

"James' mindset wasn't as a scorer in high school," Pera said. "His mindset now is totally different, even though he's a terrific passer and unselfish teammate. In high school, he was so deferral. He scored 18 points a game; he could have averaged 30. Eighteen points a game in high school—18!—as a junior and senior."

The ability to pass and the threat of it makes scoring easier for both Russell and Harden. Sometimes the best way to slow a great scorer is by shadowing him with help defenders or simply running double-teams at him when he has the ball.

Russell's vision makes defenses pay for that kind of cheating. He's excellent at finding the roll man when defenses try to trap him in pick-and-rolls. He also has a knack for noticing a defender creeping his way and then delivering no-look passes on time and on target to shooters.

"He sees the game differently, sees plays evolving before they happen," said Boals, the Ohio State assistant.

Russell also has a great feel for picking his spots. After he put up 25 points in the first half at Minnesota last month, the Gophers responded by trying to keep the ball out of his hands in the second half or bringing a double-team at him each time he touched it. Russell had only two points after halftime, but he had four of his five assists, and the Buckeyes won in overtime.

"He led us with his passing skills and his IQ," Boals said. "He's one of the few guys that can dominate a game without scoring a point. He wants to make the right play, and if you're open, he's going to pass you the ball. Our guys understand he's going to draw and demand a lot of attention. If they do their job, he's going to find them when they're open."

Russell is not just able to find guys when they're open; he sees that they're going to be open before anyone else does. There are two passes, in particular, that come to mind. Against Iowa on Jan. 17, Russell debuted a left-handed bounce pass with backspin that found Sam Thompson in stride:

Five days later at Northwestern, he threw the same pass, and this time with a better result:

"It's kind of the it factor," Boals says. "D'Angelo has it. It's always the special ones who see things happen before they happen."

You just don't see anyone else in the college game throwing passes like that, and the people who have been around the game a long time realize they're witnessing a rarity.

Legendary analyst Bill Raftery was calling Ohio State's game against Michigan this past Sunday, and after Russell whipped an underhanded, no-look pass as casually as if he were throwing a chest pass, Raftery commented: "Russell's got a little (Pete) Maravich in him, doesn't he?"

Harden's got that same kind of casual wizardry. He does things that look simple until you rewind the tape and slow it down. One of his signature "who else does that" passes is a one-handed between-the-opponent’s-legs delivery.

(You can see it here, here and here.)

Speaking of both Russell and Harden, an NBA Eastern Conference scout told B/R: "Their control of the ball and understanding of the floor and being able to get the ball (there) as guys arrive, that's something that's a rare trait to have, not passing where guys are but passing where guys are going to be before they're there. That's something that, again, indicates a guy has special talent."

Russell has become obsessed with watching tape, helping him anticipate the angles based on what he's already seen. After an Ohio State road game, he'll re-watch the game on his iPad on the flight back. He says he watches every game three or four times.

"I look at it as fun," he says.

He says he also watches games of upcoming opponents, which suggests a maturation from earlier in the season when after dropping 32 points on Sacred Heart, he told reporters: "I didn't honestly know who the opponent was, just prepared the best way I could. And I just told myself whoever was guarding me, I was going to destroy them."

Russell has kept destroying—he's averaged more points in Big Ten games (20.1 PPG) than he did in nonconference play (17.7 PPG)—but now he's studying the tendencies of defenses and the guys he will match up against to get an edge.

Russell internalizes how his upcoming opponents guard ball screens or how they guard down screens set for shooters—the Buckeyes are known as one of the best screening teams in the country, and they set a lot of them for Russell. But when you demand as much attention as Russell does, there's only so much a coaching staff can do to get him good looks. He often has to create for himself.

Most scorers have go-to moves in isolation, and they go to those moves no matter what the defense does. Russell's thought process has become much more complex.

"If I'm bringing the ball up and I know I'm about to cross over, I know (by surveying the defender) if I can get this crossover move going," he says. "If a guy sits on the crossover and doesn't go for the hesitation, I might just stutter step and keep the ball and make the hesitation move instead of making a crossover move and getting my pocket picked."

This approach is very Harden-esque. No one in basketball is better at reading a defender's positioning and getting to where he wants to go than Harden.

"We used to always talk about footwork, balance," Pera said. "He's tremendous at reading the balance points of his defenders that are in front of him. That's what people don't understand. He would ball-fake, hip-fake, shoulder-fake, and at any point if he felt the guy in front of him was off-balance, he'd just blow by him. It didn't matter which way."

Russell isn't as aggressive of a driver as Harden, who averaged 6.6 free-throw attempts per game as an Arizona State freshman, compared to just 4.1 for Russell. Russell takes only 20.1 percent of his field-goal attempts at the rim, according to Hoop-Math.com, but he's shown the ability to be able to get there when he wants.

A Western Conference scout told B/R that Russell doesn't have "out-of-this-world athleticism," but he can still get by defenders because he "changes direction so easily with the ball and has such a tight handle." At this point, however, Russell is more prone to opt for a jumper than get to the basket.

But when you see Russell navigating his way through traffic in the open floor, that's when it's like you're watching Harden.

"(Russell's) got a good pace to him, and I think he's got great vision, and I think those two things are comparable no doubt," Pera says.

"The kid sees the floor at an outstanding rate, plays the game at a pace where I don't think people rush him into mistakes, and if you're able to do that and play in your mind at your own speed while everyone else is running around like crazy and you have everything be that slow to you, you're a really good player."

---

Just like Curry...

"Welcome to the Big Ten."

Those were the words that Minnesota guard Andre Hollins said to Russell—or, at least, the part of the trash talk Russell was willing to share—right before his third Big Ten game.

"We've played all these games, and nobody's said anything to me yet," Russell said. "And he said something to me, and I was just like, 'All right.'"

Russell proceeded to drop 25 points on Hollins in the first half that night, and if you go back and watch the tape, you'll see him smiling. A lot.

"Because I was thinking, 'Are you kidding me? Really?'" Russell recalls. "There was a couple possessions where he was leaving me open like letting me score, and I was like, 'Man, you shouldn't have done that.'"

Russell is not a big trash-talker on the floor, but his body language delivers plenty of messages.

"I've seen him at shootaround, and he exudes confidence," the Western Conference scout said. "It's borderline cocky. But when the ball is tipped and he gets on the court, he backs it up."

D'Angelo's dad laughs when asked about his son's swagger.

"That's a Russell thing," he says. "We're all very confident."

This is where the comparison to Curry starts. To take and make some of the shots that Curry takes and makes, you have to be confident, right? Curry made headlines this past summer when he told Dan Patrick that he was a better offensive player than LeBron James.  

Appalachian State coach Jim Fox, who was an assistant at Davidson for Curry's teams, remembers back to the first game Curry ever played in college.

Curry always wanted to make home run plays—and he believed he could make those plays—but the Davidson staff had to bottle that up some when he came out and had 13 turnovers in his debut.

"We showed him on film, and Steph always wanted to be Brett Favre a little bit, and he's still a little like that now," Fox said. "But he took it to heart that, when he turned the ball over, we don't get a shot, and our offense is pretty darn good, and it hurts us. So he really took that to heart."

In Curry's second collegiate game the following day, he had just three turnovers against Michigan and scored 32 points.

"He's the most incredible guy with the next-play mentality," Fox said. "He can come down the floor and miss three shots in a row. Let me tell you something, if you think he's hesitating to take the fourth, you're nuts."

The ability to mess up and move on was apparent at the beginning of this season for Russell, too. In his second game, he had only six points against seven turnovers against Marquette. The next time out, he scored 32 and had just two turnovers.

Russell's belief in his ability is obvious when he's asked if anyone can stop him.

"Heck no. No, not at all," he said. "They may get lucky if it's not my night, but I wouldn't say anybody is up to that task."

	PPG	APG	3-point %
Russell	19.0	5.8	42.8
Curry	21.5	2.8	40.8
Harden	17.8	3.2	40.7

Russell was then asked what the scouting report on him would be if he was giving it: "I would probably say try to rip my jersey and pray to God that my shots don't fall and I'm not able to take control of the game."

No one ever ripped Curry's jersey in college, but Fox says opposing defenders tried everything from trash talk to beating "the crap out of him" to holding his jersey.

In the NIT in 2008, Loyola even tried a Triangle-and-2, and they put "the 2" on Curry. As Davidson's coaches tried to design ways to get him the ball, Curry came to the sideline to tell his coaches he was just going to stand in the corner and let his teammates "dice 'em up."

"Steph was so confident, he said, 'you know what, I'm just going to stand over in the corner and talk to you two guys, and my teammates are going to beat you by 50,'" Fox remembers.

Davidson won by 30, and Curry did not score a point.

It takes a defense that drastic to keep Curry or Russell from getting their looks, because they both share a special trait in the ability to shoot off the dribble.

"There's very few guys that can take it off the bounce and get it off as quickly and accurately as D'Angelo and Steph," the Eastern Conference scout said.  

"If you make the wrong play for a nanosecond, Steph's getting his shot off, man," Fox said. "He's getting his shot off."

That's the part of Russell's game that has allowed him to score so consistently this season. If a defender goes under a screen or gives him any kind of space, a shot is going up.

Only 37.9 percent of his baskets have been assisted this season, according to Hoop-Math.com, so a majority of his shots are his own creation.

"(Russell) doesn't need a ball screen to get past his guy," the Western Conference scout said. "He can just shake guys one-on-one. How many guys can really do that anymore? Not many. He can really do that."

---

What's next?

Ellis Myles, Russell’s former AAU coach, is on the phone, and he’s trying to come up with a comparison for the freshman star. The names of Curry or Harden have not come up yet, but those are the first two suggestions he throws out. 

He’s then told about the offensive rating stat that ties the three players together.

“I was just throwing those two guys out as a comparison,” Myles says, laughing. “Wow.”

Comparisons to great players are usually never fair and sometimes forced, but NBA people pay a lot more attention to advanced statistics these days.

That’s why it helps Russell that not only is he in an exclusive statistical club with Harden and Curry but also what those guys have become is working in his favor.

The consensus since this season started has been that Duke big man Jahlil Okafor would be the No. 1 pick in June. It’s still what most believe. He’s a once-in-a-generation talent as a back-to-the-basket scorer.

But it’s Russell, not Okafor, whom the Western Conference scout says he believes is the surest bet to become an All-Star. And if you want an idea of how special Russell has been or what NBA people are starting to believe he can be, it’s this: The No. 1 pick isn’t as clear-cut as it once was.

“To me, if we have the No. 1 pick,” the scout said, “he's a hard guy to pass up on.”

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @CJMooreBR.

How many rivalries can say they started with an actual war?

As Becky Jacobs of The Mirror Newspapers noted, the feud between Ohio and Michigan actually began with the Toledo War in 1835, which was a border dispute over a strip of land that included Toledo. President Andrew Jackson even had to get involved to end the spat.

Now Ohio State and Michigan continue the battle on the football field and basketball court every year, and the Buckeyes and Wolverines will lace it up for the second time this season Sunday. It is a critical contest for an Ohio State squad looking to finish in second place in the Big Ten and a Michigan squad just looking for a win.

With that in mind, here are a few keys for the Buckeyes if they hope to come away with their second victory in as many tries against the hated Wolverines this season.

Fast Start

There are few teams in the country reeling as much as Michigan right now.

The Wolverines have lost five in a row and six of seven, including a blowout loss on Tuesday to their other rival, Michigan State. A quick start for Ohio State would reinforce the notion that the Wolverines are overmatched in this contest and likely bring the intensity level of the crowd down as well.

The Buckeyes handled the Wolverines by 19 points in the first matchup, and a fast start would bring those memories back for those in maize and blue and likely impact the confidence of the players on the floor. It would also help the Buckeyes get over their heartbreaking loss to Michigan State from the last time out and shake off any rust from more than a week off between games.

Fast starts are important in almost any game, but Ohio State has a chance to dictate the tone of this one from the opening tip. It needs to take advantage.

Pound the Glass

As of Wednesday, Michigan was an abysmal 319th in the country in total rebounds per game.

In fact, the two leading rebounders on the team are the injured guards Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton Jr., and neither of them were even averaging five boards a game on the season before their injuries. This is simply one of the worst power conference teams in the country down low, and the Buckeyes need to exploit this glaring weakness Sunday.

Despite the blowout win in the first matchup, Ohio State only enjoyed a 36-33 rebounding advantage against Michigan and needs to establish more control on the glass if it hopes to come away with a repeat performance on the road.

It is not very often that the Buckeyes have an advantage down low, but that is the case in Sunday’s game. Look for them to convert on some second-chance opportunities on the offensive end and limit Michigan to one shot on most possessions on the defensive side.

Get D’Angelo Russell Going

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrm7kmHSMWI

It is certainly too early to call the past couple of games a freshman wall for D’Angelo Russell, but there has to at least be some concern that he has struggled from the field recently.

Russell only scored 10 points against Michigan State on 4-of-13 shooting and didn’t make the plays many expected down the stretch of what became a nail-biter of a game. Although his 17 points looked better against Penn State in the contest before the one with the Spartans, Russell also shot 4-of-13 that night.

Nobody is asking Russell to get a triple-double every time out, but he needs to shoot the ball with more consistency than that if the Buckeyes are going to make a run to finish out the regular season before the tournament.

There is no doubt that the game-changing talent is there, and Andrew Sharp of Grantland even compared Russell favorably to the college versions of Russell Westbrook and James Harden. That should be enough to turn heads for the rest of the season. 

"The common denominator with guards like Westbrook and Harden is that they had a knack for bending games to their will that you couldn’t really measure," Sharp said. "What makes a smaller player dominate is different from what makes a giant unstoppable. Whatever that quality is, Russell looks like he has it." 

February and March is when college basketball players turn that talent and potential into results. A solid game against Michigan would put Russell back on the right track to do just that.

Hit Free Throws

Ohio State lost by three points in its last game at Michigan State. Ohio State shot 5-of-13 from the free-throw line in that contest.

Those two things seem related.

As Tim Shoemaker of Eleven Warriors noted, the Buckeyes shot 71.9 percent from the charity stripe in nonconference play but are only hitting 62.7 percent of their free throws during the Big Ten season. That simply isn’t going to cut it.

In fact, four of the Buckeyes’ starters shoot below 65 percent from the line (Shannon Scott, Sam Thompson, Jae’Sean Tate and Anthony Lee), which means if anyone but Russell is fouled, Ohio State has a problem. Even Russell missed his two attempts against the Spartans.

Coach Thad Matta discussed the free-throw struggles, via Shoemaker: "We’ve got to find a way to shoot a better free-throw percentage. Earlier in the year we were shooting a very high percentage and I’m not exactly sure what’s happened.” 

If the Buckeyes plan on making noise in March, they need to figure out what happened. Sunday in Michigan would be a good place to start.

Follow me on Twitter:

Follow @ScottPolacek

The Ohio State Buckeyes will be visiting the Michigan State Spartans in a marquee Big Ten college basketball matchup Saturday, with the Buckeyes having won three of their past four meetings with the Spartans both straight up and against the spread heading into the weekend contest.

The hosts opened as 1.5-point favorites at most online shops mid Friday.

The Buckeyes and Spartans are vying for second place in the Big Ten standings behind the conference-leading Wisconsin Badgers. Wisconsin sits atop the Big Ten standings with a 10-1 mark in league play heading into the weekend, while Ohio State and Michigan State were among five teams in the conference with four losses apiece as of Thursday night.

The Buckeyes and Maryland Terrapins each have eight Big Ten wins on their resume this season, while the Spartans have seven, with three of those coming in their last four games.

Michigan State is coming off a 68-44 rout of the Northwestern Wildcats on Tuesday as a 7.5-point road favorite at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark, rebounding from a bad 59-54 loss to the Illinois Fighting Illini three days earlier as 10-point home chalk. The Spartans have disappointed their backers lately by failing to cover the spread in six of their past eight games despite winning five of them.

Ohio State has won five of its last six games, going 4-2 ATS following a 75-55 blowout win over the Penn State Nittany Lions on Wednesday as an 11.5-point home favorite on the college basketball betting lines at the online sportsbooks. The team’s lone loss during that stretch came on the road against the Purdue Boilermakers by a score of 60-58 on February 4 as a 1-point favorite.

The Buckeyes are in the midst of a tough stretch—playing four of five games away from home—that wraps up with a visit to the Michigan Wolverines on February 22. However, freshman guard D’Angelo Russell has emerged for them as one of the best players in the country, averaging a team-high 19.4 points to go along with 5.5 assists per game while leading the conference with 21.3 and 5.7 in Big Ten games.

The college basketball season is a learning process for fans of the game, and filling out a March Madness bracket is the final exam where all that knowledge is put to the test.

It is teams like this season’s Ohio State squad (18-6, 7-4 Big Ten) that make that final exam so difficult.

At times, the Buckeyes look like they could be the second-best team in the Big Ten behind Wisconsin and challenge almost anyone in the country in a single-elimination tournament.

Then there are other times when Ohio State looks completely lost—outside of guard D’Angelo Russell—and appears to be a team that could be in for a disappointing March.

The best fans can do before filling out those NCAA tournament brackets is accumulate as much knowledge as they can and hope for the best. With that in mind, here are some of the things the college basketball world has learned about the Buckeyes thus far this season.

D’Angelo Russell Is a Once-in-a-Generation Player

Russell had some hype inside the confines of Columbus and even the Big Ten heading into the season, but he has taken the nation by storm.

His presence alone on the basketball court means the Buckeyes could theoretically win any game because he is like an NBA player competing against college kids.

Russell brings the complete package to the table—he can shoot from the outside (44.5 percent from three-point range), slash to the rim, hit teammates with jaw-dropping passes and even rebound (he leads the team with 5.9 boards a night).

The entire Ohio State offense was transformed when he started running more point guard and controlling the ball at the end of the shot clock. As a result, the Buckeyes have won four of five games and are tied for second in the conference.

Russell’s full array of talents were on display in Sunday’s win over Rutgers when he picked up the fourth triple-double in school history with 23 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds.

He also inspired Rutgers coach Eddie Jordan to make some lofty comparisons during his teleconference: “He’s like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, he just sees the floor, the game’s so easy to him.”

Ohio State fans should enjoy this final month of watching Russell because he will likely lace it up in the NBA next season if his position as the No. 2 pick in DraftExpress’ latest mock draft is any indication.

Russell has the talent to keep the Buckeyes in any game they play, which is a scary proposition for whomever they line up across in March.

The Buckeyes Need Marc Loving Back

While Russell may be a once-in-a-generation type of talent, Ohio State needs more on the offensive side of the ball to accomplish its goals. The way to get that is with the return of forward Marc Loving, who is currently suspended indefinitely.

Loving leads the nation with a dazzling 53.2 percent shooting clip from three-point range, which helps space the floor and take some of the pressure off Russell.

In Ohio State’s loss at Purdue Wednesday, the Boilermakers essentially swarmed Russell on a number of occasions and clogged the lane to take away any penetration.

The Buckeyes didn’t have anyone out there who could really make Purdue pay for that strategy with lethal three-point shooting, like Loving did against Maryland.

Loving drilled all five of his three-point attempts on his way to 19 points and six rebounds in that win over Maryland. That is the type of second-scorer production that was glaringly absent from the perimeter against Purdue.

Loving also brings height to Thad Matta’s small-ball lineup at 6’7” and has the length to bother opponents on the defensive end.

CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein did point out that there is reason for optimism after the win over Rutgers on Sunday when it comes to finding a replacement:

Keita Bates-Diop made the most out of Marc Loving's minutes in OSU's win Sunday at Rutgers. 14 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 9, 2015

While Keita Bates-Diop was excellent on Sunday, he has been a non-factor for much of the season. Loving is the proven scorer who shoots from three-point range better than anyone in the nation. The Buckeyes need that if they hope to make noise in March.

This Team Could Make a Deep Tournament Run or Flame Out in the Round of 64

There are few things in all of sports that can be as maddening for a fanbase as inconsistency.

Ohio State showed how dangerous it can be with its 24-point victory over then-No. 16 Maryland that came right on the heels of a 12-point win over then-No. 23 Indiana.

The mixture of NBA-ready talent in Russell, experience and senior leadership in forward Sam Thompson and guard Shannon Scott, and an X-factor who keeps getting better every game in forward Jae’Sean Tate was on full display.

However, even with those ingredients for success in place, there are enough weaknesses on this team that it could very well lose in the round of 64 for a second consecutive season.

Scott and Thompson both shoot below 25 percent from three-point range, the big men don’t really impact the game on a consistent basis and if Loving doesn’t return this season, defenses will swarm Russell in March and force the other guys to beat them.

Russell is in a category by himself and has been largely impervious to the ups and downs of a long season, but Ohio State is reliant on all freshmen and seniors without Loving on the roster.

Freshmen are going to be inconsistent in their first year, while the seniors have been inconsistent themselves throughout their four years on campus.

The fact that Ohio State looks like a completely different team from game to game isn’t that much of a surprise when all of that is taken into consideration.

For the Buckeyes to play at their best, they need Loving back on the floor, Russell to play like the basketball wizard he is, the seniors to do what they do best instead of forcing ill-advised threes and Tate to play with the relentless energy he has displayed during the Big Ten portion of the schedule.

If all that happens in March, Matta’s squad has a high ceiling. If it doesn’t, Buckeyes fans will be mentally preparing for football season in March once again.

Follow me on Twitter:

Follow @ScottPolacek

All aboard the D’Angelo Russell express.

Ohio State is suddenly back in the mix for a Big Ten title after a three-game winning streak that included blowout victories over Maryland and Indiana, thanks largely to the brilliance of Russell. Now the question is whether the future pro can lead the Buckeyes to a strong regular-season finish to put them in position for a favorable NCAA tournament seed.

While he may be the most important one, Russell is far from the only key for Ohio State the rest of the way. Here is a look at some of the factors that will determine where Thad Matta’s squad stands at the end of the year both in the Big Ten and the national picture.

D’Angelo Russell’s Continued Brilliance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrm7kmHSMWI

In the past five games alone—all against Big Ten competition—Russell has 121 points, 45 rebounds, 30 assists and nine steals. He has taken the conference and country by storm and could very well be playing himself into an NBA contract of a lifetime.

Ohio State’s offense has changed during this winning streak because Shannon Scott is playing off the ball more, while Russell is asked to be the creator at the end of the shot clock. It makes sense considering Russell is Ohio State’s best playmaker, and he has responded accordingly by creating scoring opportunities for both himself and his teammates.

With only five players on the floor at once, a single and transcendent talent can control the flow of an entire basketball game. That is what Russell has done recently and what he must continue to do for the Buckeyes moving forward.

He certainly caught the attention of ESPN’s Jeff Goodman and Big Ten Network’s Brent Yarina:

D'Angelo Russell is so darn good. Best all-around offensive guard in the country.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) January 25, 2015

ICYMI: This D'Angelo Russell pass is absolutely ridiculous. http://t.co/P4QJI4hy9G

— Brent Yarina (@BTNBrentYarina) January 23, 2015

Matta also offered incredibly high praise, via Doug Lesmerises of Northeast Ohio Media Group:

It's a little bit like with Michael Conley in '07, his demeanor in terms of kind of running our basketball team, he was such a likeable kid, all you knew he wanted to do was win. D'Angelo is along those same lines in terms of his competitive nature and those types of things. 

Russell is a special, once-in-a-generation type of player. It wouldn’t be that surprising if he was making plays like James Harden within a year or two in the NBA, so Buckeye Nation had better enjoy him while it can.

Rebound Like the Maryland Game

Ohio State hasn’t exactly dominated on the boards this season, and many would point to the big guys on the roster (Amir Williams, Trey McDonald and Anthony Lee) as a weakness.

However, the Buckeyes controlled the glass against Maryland and limited any second-chance opportunities as the Terrapins clanked 17 three-pointers. Ohio State enjoyed a 51-32 advantage in the rebounding department and even snagged 16 offensive rebounds of its own.

Lee played with plenty of energy on both ends of the floor, Williams snagged eight rebounds off the bench and Russell led the way from the guard position with 14 boards of his own.

Now the Buckeyes have to face A.J. Hammons in the upcoming game against Purdue, so rebounding will take on even more importance. 

Outside of that one game, though, the only way Matta can realistically stick with his small-ball lineup that has been so effective during this winning streak is if the Buckeyes continue to rebound. It is not feasible to stick with a small, more athletic group if it continuously gives up possession by losing the battles for rebounds.

Continue the Strong Man-to-Man Defense

Ever since Ohio State switched from a 2-3 zone to man-to-man defense in the middle of the game against Illinois, things have gone much better. The Buckeyes are 6-2 since the change, and Tim Shoemaker of Eleven Warriors illustrated why that is:

In those eight games since the full-time switch to man, the Buckeyes have allowed more than 70 points only twice — against Minnesota in an overtime win and in a road loss to Iowa.

Ohio State has allowed its opponents to shoot just 42 percent from the floor in those eight games and 34 percent from behind the 3-point line. Just two teams—Iowa and Indiana—have shot over 50 percent from the floor against the Buckeyes since the switch.

The Buckeyes have the athletes to keep up with any team in the Big Ten when it comes to playing man-to-man defense. It also allows Scott and Sam Thompson to get up in the grills of opposing ball-handlers and create havoc, turnovers and contested, low-percentage shots. 

As long as Ohio State continues to play effective, shutdown defense on one end, the offense should be able to do enough on the other to keep it in the conference title race.

Marc Loving’s Shooting

As special as Russell is, Ohio State isn’t going to win the Big Ten without another consistent scorer.

It is unrealistic to expect Russell to play 40 minutes a night, and the offense can’t simply fall apart when he’s off the floor. That is where Marc Loving comes into play. More specifically, that is where Loving’s shooting comes into play.

Loving is hitting a blistering 53.2 percent of his shots from downtown, which is a higher clip than some players shoot from the free-throw line.

Thanks to that shooting, Loving can space the floor and force the defense to pick its poison when the two are on the court together. If opponents collapse on Russell, Loving will make them pay with a three, but it is game over if they don’t double on Russell’s penetration.

Loving is also important in the rebounding department as well at 6’7” if and when Matta sticks with the small lineup. 

However, as long as Loving is drilling more than half of the threes he takes alongside Russell, the Buckeyes should be a factor in the Big Ten race the rest of the season. That is just a lethal pairing on the offensive side.

Follow me on Twitter:

Follow @ScottPolacek

Shortly after watching Ohio State roll to a 24-point win over No. 16 Maryland during his official visit to Columbus on Thursday night, 4-star shooting guard JaQuan Lyle gave his verbal commitment to the Buckeyes.

Current Ohio State guard D'Angelo Russell revealed the news on his Instagram account: 

The caption reads, "S/o to my bro @easymoneyquan5 newest member of#tOSU YESSIR! We running tables next year."

It's been a roller-coaster recruiting process for Lyle, who originally committed to Louisville as part of the 2014 class before flipping to Oregon. He signed with the Ducks but didn't become academically eligible. Instead of going to junior college, he enrolled at IMG Academy.

Head coach Thad Matta and his staff will obviously be hoping this commitment sticks.

Lyle is ranked as the No. 38 overall prospect and No. 8 shooting guard in the 2015 class. At 6'5" and 220 pounds, he already has NBA size for a shooting guard, but he has the ball-handling and vision to play either guard position.

As TheRecruitScoop.com's Alex Kline noted, the smooth, skilled combo guard makes sense as a potential replacement for Russell:

Former Oregon & Louisville commit JaQuan Lyle will be a welcomed addition to Ohio State with D’Angelo Russell likely on his way to the NBA.

— Alex Kline (@TheRecruitScoop) January 30, 2015

With Russell routinely approaching triple-doubles, his draft stock continues to rise. He is now listed at No. 2 overall in DraftExpress' most recent mock draft, and it would be a fairly big surprise if he returned to campus as a sophomore.

Throw in the looming graduation for both Shannon Scott and Sam Thompson, and the Buckeyes are going to need some backcourt depth.

Marc Loving will likely be back and Jae'Sean Tate is proving to be ready for an increased role, but the addition of Lyle and fellow 4-star guards Austin Grandstaff and A.J. Harris will prove important as early as in the 2015-16 campaign.

Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

It is much easier said than done, but perhaps college basketball fans and media members should not overreact to any losses before the month of February.

After all, the 2014-15 Ohio State Buckeyes went from the second-best team in the Big Ten before the season started to a squad that was bound for the NIT in the early conference schedule to a team that is once again on track to reach the upper portion of the conference standings.

Ohio State looked outmatched against Louisville, North Carolina, Iowa and Indiana and had zero quality wins to five losses by Jan. 17. However, the Buckeyes picked up that elusive quality win against Indiana Sunday and now appear to be headed in the right direction with two straight wins before a critical showdown with Maryland Thursday.

The team has turned things around because of improvements at the individual level. Let’s take a look at where each starter has improved the most over the course of the season using the starting lineup from Ohio State’s most recent game.

Shannon Scott: Turnovers

From a pure statistical standpoint, the first thing that jumps out about Shannon Scott is the fact that he is sixth in the nation in assists per game (6.7).

However, he has been dishing out assists all season long and actually had an astounding 41 in the first three games of the year. Where he has shown his most improvement from early in the campaign to now is his ability to protect the ball.

Scott has only turned it over more than two times in a game twice in the past 10 contests. That stands in stark contrast to the point guard who coughed it up five times in the loss to Louisville and five more times in the win over Morehead State a week later.

Scott’s never going to be an elite scorer, but there are impressive scoring options alongside him in D’Angelo Russell and Marc Loving. That means the most important thing Scott can do in terms of offense is simply distribute it to the wings and let the playmakers go to work. 

The only way he can do that is if he continues to protect the ball.

D’Angelo Russell: Consistency

Enjoy Russell while you still can because he could very well be a top-five pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

The electrifying talent, ability to light up the scoreboard at a moment’s notice and the highlight-reel passes have been there all season, but Russell is starting to put together a streak of consistency that should have the rest of the Big Ten rather worried.

Gone in recent games are the 4-of-16 efforts against Iowa or the 3-of-15 efforts against Indiana that fans saw earlier in the year. Instead, Russell has shot 56 percent from the field in the past four games and has topped 20 points in each one, including the 33-point effort against Northwestern.

Coach Thad Matta discussed Russell’s value to the team, via Patrick Maks of Eleven Warriors:

I think that he’s pretty comfortable with what we’re doing … great understanding of the game of basketball. Very diligent … he wants to be a great player…Before practice after practice you see him in there working … He’s also a guy that’s fun to play with, he makes our team — his teammates better — with the ball in his hands. 

It is easy to forget that Russell is only a freshman when watching him play, but the consistency is likely the result of more seasoning as he grows accustomed to the college game. The rest of the Big Ten is officially on notice if that continues.

Sam Thompson: Defensive Aggressiveness

Sam Thompson is shooting an abysmal 20 percent from three-point range on the season, but he has made up for it with improved and tenacious defense in recent games.

While it has shown up in the box scores (at least one steal in the past 10 games, including a five-steal effort against Michigan), it is his ability to stay in front of the other team’s best wing player on a nightly basis that makes Thompson valuable. Rarely does his man ever get a clean look at a three or even a straight-line drive to the basket.

Matta has built his program on the back of strong defensive squads, and Thompson is Ohio State’s best defender this season. The Buckeyes are going to need that come March.

Jae’Sean Tate: Versatility

Matta rewarded Jae’Sean Tate’s energy off the bench earlier this season with a spot in the starting lineup the past two contests. All Tate did to reward his coach was turn in 20 points and six rebounds on 9-of-10 shooting from the field in the critical victory against Indiana.

While Tate’s energy is important for the Buckeyes, it has been there all year. It is his versatility and ability to play multiple positions that will be crucial if Matta is going to stick with the small-ball lineup we have seen the past couple of games. Tate may only be 6’4” tall, but he mixes it up down low with much bigger players on a consistent basis.

Tim Shoemaker of Eleven Warriors summarized Tate’s ability to play above his listed height:

Take a glance up and down Ohio State's roster and you'll find 10 of its 13 players are listed at 6-foot-5 or taller.

Jae'Sean Tate is not one of those 10, but that doesn't really matter. Because even though he stands just 6-foot-4, Tate plays just as big — if not bigger than — any of the other Buckeyes.

That versatility allows Matta to mix and match a number of different combinations, which has paid off in the past two games.

Anthony Lee: Incomplete

It wouldn’t really be fair to Anthony Lee to grade anything he has done at this point of the season as a starter because he just cracked the initial rotation in the past two games.

He turned in the exact type of performance that the Buckeyes were looking for against Northwestern with eight points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field, but he was only on the floor for two minutes against the smaller Hoosiers. 

Perhaps the best thing Lee has done in the eyes of the fans is take minutes away from the much-maligned Amir Williams. More performances like the one we saw against Northwestern from Tate would go a long way toward boosting Ohio State’s chances in the Big Ten race.

Follow me on Twitter:

Follow @ScottPolacek

Take a deep breath, Buckeye Nation—it finally happened.

The Ohio State basketball team picked up its first win of the season against a school in the top 50 of the RPI when it knocked off Indiana on Sunday to the tune of 82-70. D’Angelo Russell was once again spectacular, tallying 22 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, and the NCAA tournament finally looks like the final destination for this squad.

Even though the Buckeyes got that much-needed win on the resume, there are still plenty of questions to answer moving forward. After all, the critical part of the schedule is still to come. 

With that in mind, here is a look at five burning questions for the remainder of the season.

Will This Be D’Angelo Russell’s Only Season in Columbus?

ESPN’s Jeff Goodman had some incredibly high praise for Russell during Sunday’s win:

D'Angelo Russell is so darn good. Best all-around offensive guard in the country.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) January 25, 2015

That doesn't sound like a prospect who will be in college for long.

Having someone with game-changing talent like Russell is somewhat bittersweet for the Buckeyes. His presence on the floor makes his teammates and the unit as a whole much more effective and dangerous as we slowly progress toward crunch time in the schedule, but it’s difficult to see him playing another season in Columbus. 

After all, DraftExpress listed him as the No. 4 pick in its most recent mock draft, and those types of NBA riches and opportunities are simply too hard to pass up.

What that means is Buckeyes fans everywhere should enjoy Russell while he is still in school because he will likely be giving professional defenders trouble a year from now.

It’s easy to focus on just the scoring (he was averaging 19.3 points per game before Sunday’s 22-point effort), but he is also a top-notch passer. He dished out 10 assists against the Hoosiers Sunday and threw some of the most jaw-dropping passes of the season against Iowa and Northwestern. 

Bleacher Report had the must-see highlight for the Iowa one:

VIDEO: Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell throws a ridiculous bounce pass vs. Iowa http://t.co/FqEOnr9gPK pic.twitter.com/hIdY93j43g

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 17, 2015

Head coach Thad Matta discussed Russell’s versatility with Rob McCurdy of the Times Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio).

"He's not one of those guys who's only going to hit you if you're sitting on the rim," Matta said. "He's going to make plays and that makes it that much more enjoyable but, with that said, he's taken some big shots for us and the ball is in his hands a lot. I think guys are definitely OK with that." 

Russell is excellent and clearly Ohio State’s best chance to actually make some noise in the NCAA tournament, but he’s playing himself right into the top five picks in the upcoming NBA draft.

What Is Amir Williams’ Role Moving Forward?

Nobody on Ohio State draws more criticism from the fans (and commentators) than center Amir Williams, and the message boards had to be celebrating during Sunday’s win over Indiana.

Williams didn’t see the court for a single minute against the Hoosiers and only played three minutes the game before in the win at Northwestern. Granted, some of the lack of playing time was because neither the Hoosiers or Wildcats have a dominant big man down low to make the Buckeyes pay, but it is hard to ignore the fact that the two games both ended in victory.

Two victories is not nearly the sample size needed to make a definitive decision on Williams, but we have not heard the last of the small-ball lineup.

So what happens moving forward with Williams as a senior who opened the season as the starting center? It is a unique scenario, but this is not little league baseball where everyone has to play. The best players will see the court in these important late-season contests, and Williams is far from being considered the best player on this team. 

He will be used against teams with big centers, but this small-ball experiment will stick around if the Buckeyes keep winning.

Will Jae’Sean Tate Develop into Ohio State’s Second-Best Option?

For all the deserving love that Russell received for his performance against Indiana, Jae’Sean Tate was just as critical in the victory.

Not only did Tate impress with 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field and six rebounds, he further solidified his new starting role. Tate was inserted into the starting lineup before the Northwestern game by Matta as a source of energy to counter the team’s slow starts.

While Ohio State continues to hit the snooze button on the opening five minutes of games (it fell behind by double digits in the first half to Northwestern and 14-6 to Indiana by the first television timeout), Tate has been excellent. He never takes a play off, is the first to dive to the floor for a loose ball and plays much taller than his 6’4” frame indicates.

Tate is going to be on the floor for significant time because of his effort on a nightly basis, but the question is whether he can bolster that with the offense we saw Sunday. 

If Tate starts to drop 20 points every once in a while, the ceiling on this Buckeyes team all of a sudden gets a lot higher. No pressure or anything.

Will Sam Thompson’s Outside Shot Ever Return?

Sam Thompson is a lot of things—one of the best dunkers in all of college basketball and arguably Ohio State’s best defender because of his experience, athleticism and length—but he is not an effective three-point shooter.

At least he isn’t this year.

Thompson is hitting a putrid 20.4 percent of his shots from downtown this season, yet he is an inexplicable fourth on the team in long-range attempts. While he may be a senior leader, it is time for the coaching staff to let him know that the three-point attempts shouldn’t be flying.

To be fair, Thompson was a 40.4 percent shooter from deep as a sophomore and 35.5 percent as a junior, so it’s not like the talent and ability isn’t there. Still, it is natural to wonder if that shot will return at all because we haven’t seen it in his farewell season.

Perhaps Thompson would be better off as a slasher and dominant defender than an outside shooter. The 2014-15 numbers would suggest that to be the case.

How Far in the Big Ten Can the Buckeyes Climb?

There is plenty of good news for Ohio State, even at 5-3 in the Big Ten.

After all, the Buckeyes are now all the way up to fourth place in the league and hot on the heels of Maryland and Indiana. With two straight wins and a fairly manageable schedule moving forward before a showdown at Michigan State on Feb. 14, Ohio State could start to climb in the Big Ten.

What’s more, the Buckeyes only play Wisconsin and Maryland at home this season and do not go to either Madison or College Park, respectively. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but at least Ohio State still has the chance to play a role in the title race with its two biggest remaining games at home.

It also helps the Buckeyes’ cause that the Big Ten did not look nearly as strong in the nonconference season as it has in recent years from top to bottom. Plus, Ohio State looks like a different team than the one that struggled in the early losses, which is encouraging moving forward with a conference title eventually on the line. 

That is a far cry from where Ohio State was just two games ago.

Follow me on Twitter:

Follow @ScottPolacek

The date was September 6, 2014, and the Ohio State football season was virtually over.

Buckeye Nation begrudgingly slumped out of the hallowed gates of Ohio Stadium after watching its football team lose in startling fashion to a mediocre Virginia Tech squad. It was the cherry on top of the gut punch that was delivered just weeks before when superstar quarterback Braxton Miller was ruled out for the season with injury.

You don’t have to be an Ohio State fan to remember what happened next.

While it may be a far stretch to envision Thad Matta and the basketball Buckeyes rallying together after a slow start in the same fashion their football counterparts did, it would be ill-advised to simply give up on this team already.

Sure, Ohio State is in eighth place in the Big Ten standings, but it is only two games back in the loss column. A conference title is not out of the picture just yet.

After all, crazier things have happened in Columbus this very month. 

Here are some things that Matta’s bunch has to do if it hopes to contend for that Big Ten championship.

Win the Next Six Games

There is really no shame in any of Ohio State’s losses if each one is viewed through a vacuum, but there are also zero quality wins on the resume. If that pattern continues, an NCAA tournament bid is no sure thing.

All it would take is one bad loss to throw the entire resume off, especially since the nonconference schedule was a steady diet of cupcakes outside of the two losses to Louisville and North Carolina.

That is why the next stretch of six games is so important for both the team’s NCAA tournament hopes and Big Ten title aspirations. There is a mix of games that the Buckeyes should win and a couple of opportunities at home against nationally ranked squads to bolster the overall resume.

Based on talent alone, Ohio State should beat Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers and Penn State in four of the next six contests. Yes, Purdue has a winning record in the Big Ten, but it also lost to North Florida, Vanderbilt and Gardner Webb. Rutgers shocked Wisconsin, but Frank Kaminsky didn’t play and the Scarlet Knights have lost three in a row since. Penn State and Northwestern have one combined win in Big Ten play.

Matta talked about the need to take it one game at a time in this upcoming stretch, via Tim Shoemaker of Eleven Warriors:

The one thing I know is that if you treat them all in terms of one game at a time, you’ve got to — if you don’t take care of business in the first one then the next one is like a tornado hit. If you don’t take care of that one then the third one is — we’ve come home from Iowa and had two practices today, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and basically said, ‘Look, we’ve got to get ourselves better on both sides of the ball and there’s got to be more of an understanding, more of a commitment in terms of what we’re trying to do.

The other two games in this must-win portion of the schedule are both at home against Indiana and Maryland. The Hoosiers (who already beat Ohio State once) and Terrapins are both nationally ranked, but the Buckeyes have to start winning a couple of meaningful games.

The only other ranked team on the schedule is mighty Wisconsin, so these are the best opportunities to do just that.

If Ohio State somehow manages to pull it together and win six in a row before its trip to East Lansing on Valentine’s Day, its conference record would suddenly be 9-3. The NCAA tournament would look like something of a lock, and the team’s position in the Big Ten standings would be much more favorable.

For now, the Buckeyes just have to take things one game at a time.

Dial Up the Pressure

Ohio State controlled its victory over Michigan with a full-court press and 11 steals and cut a double-digit deficit against Indiana into a one-point game in the final four minutes with the same strategy.

That’s why it was surprising that the Buckeyes dialed the pressure back somewhat against Iowa, and the result was a nine-point loss that really wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. The Buckeyes tallied only four steals and couldn’t come up with the critical stop when needed.

Even when the Buckeyes made a barrage of three-pointers in the second half, it never felt like they had a chance to win the game because the defense simply wasn’t coming through on the other end. 

Given the success of the pressure against Michigan and Indiana, don’t be surprised if Matta institutes more of it in the upcoming critical stretch. The Buckeyes need to do something to change things up, and this could be it.

Start Faster 

There is a common thread every time Ohio State loses—the start of the game makes Buckeyes fans want to shield their eyes.

In every one of Ohio State’s losses, it found itself behind by double digits in the first half. Four of those five games came away from home, which only exacerbated the slow starts.

It is emotionally and physically draining enough as it is to play on the road without having to overcome large deficits. In many of Ohio State’s losses, including the ones to Louisville, North Carolina and Indiana, there was a second-half push that simply came up short. Coming back requires a lot of energy and luck, and it reached a point late in the games when both ran out.

The Buckeyes need to find an answer and come out the gates with more energy. Perhaps that means inserting freshman Jae’Sean Tate into the starting lineup after he was one of the few Buckeyes who played like he had a pulse in the last game against Iowa.

Shoemaker discussed the need for faster starts in a separate piece:

Whatever decision Matta makes, it’s clear Ohio State needs to play better to open games. The Buckeyes have trailed by double digits in the first half of each of their five losses, but they’ve yet to lose by more than nine points. Their slow starts have cost them opportunities to earn quality wins.

So somehow, someway Ohio State needs to figure out its slow-starting problem because as of this point it doesn't have a real quality win on its schedule and the Buckeyes are very much on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. 

If the Buckeyes want to reach their desired finish line, they better work on their starts.

Follow me on Twitter:

Follow @ScottPolacek