Chris Holtmann addresses Ohio State's recent turnaround

While Ohio State has still dropped their last two as part of a four-game losing streak and a 1-7 run in the Big Ten, the offense at least looked better last week. Now, with a two-game home stand this week, Chris Holtmann hopes that the Buckeyes will keep it going on that end.

Holtmann spoke about his team’s offensive improvement against Illinois and Iowa during his press conference on Monday. He says it would take a lot to explain what all they weren’t doing well but that they’ve improved in those areas as of late.

“It’d take too long to probably get into great detail in terms of how we just weren’t playing with the kind of purpose that we needed to offensively,” said Holtmann. “It was across the board.”

“I think, whether it’s not playing through the paint as much or taking too many kind of shots that just weren’t where the defense was collapsing? I still think we have to play with better pace,” Holtmann noted. “It’s a combination of things.”

In 11 games in conference play at a 3-9 record, Ohio State is averaging 71.6 points per game. That number falls to 69.3 in their nine games since the turn of the year and 63.4 in the first five losses from this stretch before last week.

Still, in the two defeats to the Fighting Illini and Hawkeyes, the Buckeyes scored 75 and 77 respectively. They shot 48.3% from the field and 38.6% from three while posting 10 more assists than turnovers on the week. It just ended up not being enough to overcome Illinois’ own offense on Tuesday or win a back and forth matchup against Iowa on Friday.

Even so, progress is progress and Ohio State showed it on offense in their last two games. Now, from here, they need those kinds of outputs to start leading to wins in this week’s games against Indiana and Maryland in Columbus.

Holtmann defines Scotty Middleton as ‘day-to-day’

Ohio State G Scotty Middleton missed their last game on Friday due to an injury. Now, after the weekend, Chris Holtmann has shared the latest on the freshman’s status moving forward.

Holtmann provided the update on Middleton during his press conference on Monday. He said it was a foot injury that he suffered in practice on Thursday. It kept him out of their loss at Iowa to end last week. Since then, though, Holtmann said he returned to do some work in practice on Sunday.

“Day-to-day – a foot injury. Did it in practice the day before the game,” Holtmann said.

“He’s day-to-day,” said Holtmann. “He did some things yesterday so he’s moving around a little bit better.”