It’s a movie we’ve seen before. The Ohio State basketball team plays well enough to make a statement against a ranked team, hangs in for most of the game, and even leads towards the end, but can’t seal the deal. It occurred again against No. 15 Virginia in Nashville, and instead of a marquis Quad 1 win, the type OSU needs to boost its chances of making the NCAA Tournament, Ohio State is left with yet more disappointment and is securely on the wrong side of the bubble.
After every Buckeye basketball game, we like to look back and pull out some observations and things we learned, and unfortunately, there have been a lot of shortcomings we’ve had to make note of for a team that has enough talent to do more than it has this season.
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OSU has just six games left to make a statement, but here’s what we learned after it failed to do so on Saturday night.
Ohio State has yet to learn how to finish games
The Buckeyes outplayed Virginia for much of the game on Saturday, on a neutral court. It’s the type of thing the NCAA Tournament committee likes to see. But once again, when it came to finishing the game, Ohio State once again played tight and undisciplined when it was time to make plays to walk away with the win.
I don’t know what it is, but when it gets down to the wire, all of a sudden, the OSU players seem to lose the composure, judgment, and effort they showed for most of the contest up until that point. Ohio State should have won after it went up by 11 points and when it had a six-point lead with under ten minutes left, but it failed again. At some point, you’d think one of these key, close games would go in the win column, but this team just doesn’t know how to finish.
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Bruce Thornton deserves better
With Ohio State sitting on the outside looking in with most bracketologists right now, it’s more than likely that the Buckeyes miss the NCAA Tournament than make it, and that’ll be four-straight years if the Buckeyes can’t find a way to get some key wins down the stretch. Bruce Thornton, a four-year captain and one of the best to ever put on the Scarlet and Gray, deserves better.
He did everything he could in this one to will OSU to the win by pouring in 28 points, grabbing four rebounds, and grabbing three steals, but in the end, he just didn’t have enough help. It didn’t help that John Mobley Jr. was out because of a hand injury, but Amare Bynum (15) and Christoph Tilly (11) were the only other Buckeyes in double figures. That’s not going to cut it. This team needs more from Devin Royal consistently and more from the bench.
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Most all-time great OSU players enjoy some Big Ten titles and deep NCAA Tournament runs, but that looks like a difficult road to traverse now.
Where are the assists for Ohio State
Feb 14, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes guard Bruce Thornton (2) drives to the basket against the Virginia Cavaliers during the first half at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
Nothing says individual play and poor shot selection more than seeing a lack of assists in the box score, and that’s been an ongoing trend and narrative with this team. A team is a collection of individuals, but they are supposed to come together, move together in concert on the court, and share the basketball. That’s how you get better shots that are higher percentage.
The Buckeyes had just seven to Virginia’s nine, and that was in a slow-down pace of play. More often than not, Ohio State is losing the assist margin, and that’s simply not winning basketball unless you have a stud who is better than everyone else on the court that you feed over and over. We all know that’s not this team. It speaks to trusting your teammates and not feeling like you have to do it yourself.
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Ohio State is 12th in the league in assists, but it’s worse against the better teams because everyone is pressing and trying to play one-on-one basketball. By the way, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, and Nebraska lead the Big Ten in assists per game. They also just so happen to be four of the top five teams in the conference standings.
This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Ohio State basketball vs Virginia: 3 things we learned from the loss
