The Buckeyes haven't forgotten about how things went for them in the first round of last season's NCAA Tournament, when they dropped to No. 15 seed Oral Roberts.
Ohio State may not be able to travel back in time, but avenging the loss that motivated its entire offseason with a better first-round showing in the Big Dance one year later would be a satisfactory accomplishment just the same.
Ohio State came up short, eventually falling to Illinois in overtime, but it showed enough during that stretch to earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, its highest since 2013. Having already proven capable of knocking off just about any Big Ten team during a year in which the conference was considered historically good, the Buckeyes seemed well-positioned to make Chris Holtmann’s deepest run to date with the program.
“Enough man, enough,” said Russell, when asked how much he’s heard about the Oral Roberts game. “And even though I wasn’t a part of it last year, I am this year, and I’m willing to take the licks just like those guys. Whatever I can do to help us not repeat that and go out and put our best foot forward, that’s what I’m willing to do.”
Another difference is that this season, Ohio State will have had eight days off from game action between the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, whereas last year’s deep run in the former tournament appeared to wear the Buckeyes down before the Big Dance. “We kind of got the memo that everybody's counting us out,” Ahrens said. “Coach gave us that message – not that he had to, because we kind of understood that. But preparation’s been good, we’ve been hitting it pretty hard in practice, just taking it one day at a time. Main thing for us is just to come out and be the tougher team and more competitive team. If we take care of those two things, we’ll be all right.