By Jackson Atoyebi

In order to win on the road, you must be a team with a mental toughness, and play with bunker-like togetherness.  I thought Ohio State coming in winning four games straight, would exhibit this type of play throughout their game against Wisconsin, especially on the road where they are tough to beat.

Let me start by saying this game was about as interesting to watch as a chick-flick on Valentine’s Day.  I mean seriously, sometimes I like the Big Ten for its defense and physicality, however this game was just bad; but I now digress.

This game was lost for Ohio State in two areas; turnovers and defensive rebounding.  They shot it well from the field (55%), but they were not able to get enough shots to score efficiently enough to win on the road.  They were led by a solid performance from Evan Turner, who had 23 points, 5 boards and 5 assists.  While those numbers look good, the lack of a floor leader hurt the Buckeyes and Turner, who ended with 6 turnovers himself.

Wisconsin, on the other hand, dictated the game with their defense and rebounding.  They used pressure defense to frustrate the Ohio State backcourt and to create extra possessions and opportunities for themselves.  And did they ever need those extra possessions.  They were a miserable 38% from the field as a team, a major contributing factor to their rebounding edge (15 offensive rebounds).

Wisconsin should be happy with the win, but understand there is still much more work for them to do to punch any dance ticket.  They are still not efficient offensively, and teams down the stretch will have too much talent offensively for the Badgers to expect to win with their defense.   Ohio State will be dancing, but they must sure up their backcourt, or establish someone as a legitimate point guard or else it will be a quick two-step for the Buckeyes.