Chris Holtmann reveals what went wrong in loss to Wisconsin

Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann addressed the media after their Jan. 13 loss to Wisconsin 78-68 about what exactly went wrong in Madison that night.

“We’re such a good shooting team and we had some good looks that we missed, but I also thought they really hugged [our] shooters,” Holtmann said. “They’re not going to give your best shooters clean looks. We just couldn’t take advantage of that enough.”

As a collective, the Buckeyes shot 50 percent (30-60) from the floor, but went 3-19 (15.8 percent) from deep and 5-10 from the charity stripe.

Five Ohio State players scored in double figures, but it was their star forward E.J. Liddell that led their team with 18 points on 6-12 shooting and cashing in on two of his three 3-point attempts.

Wisconsin led the entire way and found themselves up by as much as 17 points against the Buckeyes, something Holtmann wasn’t pleased with.

“We just didn’t have a consistent enough defensive effort to win on the road,” Holtmann said. “Offensively, we were much better in the second half; a much better rhythm, but too many turnovers early and not a good enough collective defensive effort.”

It’s safe to say his team has bounced back ever since. They’ve won their last two games since against Penn State and IUPUI, respectively.

They edged the Nittany Lions 61-56 but absolutely crushed IUPUI 83-37. No player of the Buckeyes squad played more than 26 minutes, but that didn’t stop Liddell from notching a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. The starters were taken out, leading to reserves Eugene Brown III and Cedric Russell to combine for 26 to lead to blowout victory.

Ohio State received a little break due to a postponement in their schedule against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. They’ll get back to action barring any health and safety protocol mishaps this Thursday at 8 p.m. ET against Minnesota on the road.

While it’s easy to look ahead to Sunday’s huge matchup against No. 6 Purdue, but the Golden Gophers are a team you can’t overlook sitting at 11-5 on the year. They’re led by Jamison Battle and his 18 points per game this season. Liddell will most likely be tasked with guarding the 6-foot-7 sophomore.

Ohio State has a 61.4 percent likelihood to bring home the victory, according to ESPN’s matchup predictor despite being the road team.