UCLA indeed looked like the Big Ten’s best defense on Sunday when they held Ohio State to 32 percent shooting in the 69-61 loss for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State dropped their third straight game and their hopes of getting into March Madness are slipping away. Sitting at 15-13 on the season, Ohio State likely needs 18 wins to get in. The Buckeyes have games left against USC, Nebraska, and Indiana in the regular season.
Going into the season, a lot of Ohio State’s potential success weighed on the shoulders of their transfers working out. Guard Micah Parrish has been Ohio State’s best transfer with 12.5 points per game to go along with 4.5 rebounds. Parrish was second in scoring with 12 points behind Bruce Thornton’s 21 in the loss to the Bruins.
Ohio State swung and missed with a couple of transfers
Looking past Parrish, Ohio State just hasn’t gotten much from what was looked at as a solid transfer class. Sean Stewart has brought good energy and grounding at nearly six per game, but the former five-star recruit’s ceiling doesn’t look all that high with his limited offensive game. Ques Glover has been fine as a backup point guard off the bench. Aaron Bradshaw was the other former five-star recruit that signed with Kentucky out of high school and he’s missed 10 games between health and personal reasons.
When Bradshaw has been on the court, he’s averaged 6.6 points and 2.8 rebounds per game for the Buckeyes. Ohio State’s lack of a true starting center has hurt them this season. Bradshaw was pictured to be that guy, but to this point, it hasn’t happened. The sophomore was out against UCLA for his second straight game missed on Sunday.
Ohio State brought guard Meechie Johnson Jr. back to be a scoring threat for them, instead, he has only played in 10 games and has not appeared in a game since Dec. 14 against Auburn. The senior is averaging 9.1 points and 2.7 assists per game this season. Johnson is shooting 35 percent from the field and averaging 2.3 turnovers per game. There is no reason to expect that Johnson will be back with the team, another tough transfer miss for the Buckeyes.
If Ohio State’s transfer class had panned out this season as expectations had it, the Buckeyes would have been in a better place and not fighting to play in the tournament.