Ohio State came up just a bit short against an extremely talented Michigan basketball squad on Sunday. It was a bit of a litmus test for both top five teams as we head down the stretch of the regular season. The Wolverines showed why they’ve only lost one game this year with defense, great shooting, and a willingness to share the basketball.
Head coach Juwan Howard met with the media following the win and felt really good about how his team played. He also had some pretty complimentary things to say about Ohio State and the level of effort it put forth in a high-energy, competitive game.
In case you missed anything Howard had to say about the Buckeyes following the game, we’ve got it here thanks to our friends at Wolverines Wire.
On the challenge Ohio State presented:
“Damn right I anticipated a challenge! Ohio State is a great team. They’re got in the position they’re in by being 18-4 before this game and being ranked No. 4 in the country. Great coach, also a very balanced team. They have outside shooting, they have inside scoring. They have guys that can drive the ball to the basket. They’re a very skillful group and a well-coached group, like I said earlier. Yes, I’m not happy with our defensive numbers, but I’ll take it with a victory. Gonna take a look on our film and see how we can improve.”
On sharing the ball against a good Ohio State defense:
“You’re playing against a great defensive team that has a lot of different coverages, a lot of different ways how to defend. They try to cause some type of disruption out there on the floor. Our guys understand, I talked about it in practice. We watched it on film and talked about it on walkthrough today and also before we went out there on the floor before the jump ball about just making the easy plays and we need more ball and player movement. Get up and get away from ISO balling. So with the different defensive reads, our guys took their time in making simple plays and that’s why we only had seven turnovers.”
Ohio State is next in action against Michigan State on the road Thursday.
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