Jake Diebler rips Ohio State for effort vs. Northwestern: 'This is not an acceptable way to play'

Ohio State took a crucial loss in one of their worst outings of the season with a 21-point defeat at home to Northwestern on Thursday. After losing 70-49 last night to the Wildcats, Jake Diebler was not fine with the game that the Buckeyes played. There was effort at times, but certainly not enough of one overall to approve of what his team did at all.

“You know, it wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t what it needs to be,” said Diebler. “You know, I’m not going to – this is not an acceptable, you know, way to play in this game.”

Most of that had to do with how Ohio State played coming out of the first half and over the course of the second. The Wildcats took a seven-point lead into halftime in Columbus. They then opened as much as a 28-point lead in the second half as Northwestern shot 50% from the field while finishing with 40 points in the paint on the night. Ohio State closed by shooting 29.2% from the field, and 20% from three, on just seven buckets.

That effect on their defense by their offense is what bothered Diebler the most as it’s not who his team is or has been.

“I think there were, there were stretches where we were playing hard but, we, there was a, almost the way we were letting our offense affect our defense felt just like, almost like a, a new, young team, which we haven’t been. That seemed, like – you expect something like that to happen at the beginning of the season,” said Diebler. “I don’t know if I can just look out there and say we just didn’t play hard the whole game. I don’t think that was it. There was some individual plays where we needed to be stronger and tougher guarding the ball, stronger and tougher on box outs. You know, we just, we didn’t have enough of that.

With the loss, Ohio State (15-12, 7-9) could soon be on the bubble for the bracket, if they aren’t already, having dropped four of six now with four games, three of which are on the road, to go. That’s why the Buckeyes can’t afford to play like that again with their postseason on the line over the next three weeks, including this next one that they’ll spend entirely in Los Angeles.

“So, you know, we’ve got to be able – that can’t happen again, clearly, you know,” Diebler said.