Ohio State head coach Jake Diebler lamented his team’s inability to have a short memory after the Buckeyes’ 74-57 loss to Iowa on February 25. Poor defensive execution was carrying over to the offensive end. Poor shot selection and the disappointment of missing point-blank looks carried over to the defensive end, leading to a cascade of poor play that ultimately resulted in an ugly, clunky road loss.
That did not happen on Sunday afternoon against the 8th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers (22-7, 12-6). Despite
falling behind 16-9 early in the game, Ohio State (18-11, 10-8) stuck with it, outscoring Purdue 25-15 over the next 13 minutes and taking a 36-31 into the halftime break. In doing that, they held the Boilermakers to 3-for-14 shooting from two-point range.
Nobody represented that “short memory” concept more than sophomore guard Taison Chatman, whose playing time was nearly nonexistent early in the season because of defensive shortcomings. Throughout November and December, the Ohio State coaching staff said they needed to see more consistency on the defensive end in practice from Chatman in order for him to earn more minutes in games.
Chatman was a healthy, unused substitute in five games this season, and over the first 19 games (14 for him) he averaged 5.6 minutes per game. Since January 26, Chatman is averaging 7.7 points per game over 22.5 minutes per game, starting three games in place of John Mobley Jr., who was out while recovering from a fractured finger.
The redshirt sophomore hasn’t become a defensive stalwart over the past five weeks, but Diebler and the coaching staff have noticed a big difference in his effort on that end. That, paired with his ability to come into the game cold and create offense, has earned him an increased role recently. On Sunday afternoon, Chatman felt one of the lowest lows basketball has to offer, but didn’t hang his head, and still ended up putting points on the board for the Buckeyes.
With 9:21 remaining and Ohio State leading 60-49, Christoph Tilly set a screen at the top of the three-point line for Bruce Thornton, who dribbled to the right wing and drew multiple Purdue defenders his way. Thornton uncorked a high-arcing, overhead pass towards Chatman on the opposite wing that just barely grazed the fingertips of a leaping Braden Smith and landed in Chatman’s hands.
With Smith landing about eight feet to his right, Chatman — a 47.5% three-point shooter coming into that game — had nobody in his zip code and a wide-open look for three. With plenty of time, he set his feet, let it fly, and hung his right hand in the air to admire what should’ve been the easiest three points he’d get all season….
…..as the ball soared right over and past the basket, touching absolutely none of it, and landing in the arms of Purdue’s Omer Mayer.
Instead of dwelling on one of — if not the — worst shot he’d taken all season, Chatman immediately turned up the floor while locating Smith, who would likely be the getting the ball from Mayer as Purdue brought the ball up. Mayer took a few dribbles and then threw a chest pass to Smith that was about a foot in front of him, and he was unable to grab it with one hand. Smith reached out and tried to snag the pass, but it rolled off his fingertips and bounced towards Chatman.
Chatman collected the ball and tore up court, putting Smith and Mayer on their heels but also remaining at a 2-on-1 disadvantage. By this time, John Mobley Jr. had caught up and was ready to take a pass beyond the three-point line, but Chatman took on the two Boilermaker defenders, slicing through both to score at the basket to make it 62-49 not even 10 seconds after he had air balled a three.
It was the type of play Diebler said Ohio State lacked against Iowa last week. Chatman did not hang his head after his three-pointer cleared the rim by a full foot. He got back up the floor, found Braden Smith, and came up with an opportunistic steal. After that, he took advantage of the broken play to score without hesitating.
After the game, Diebler said he’s not sure if that was a play Chatman could’ve made as recently as a few weeks ago.
“You know, I don’t know if he would’ve been able to do that a few weeks ago,” Diebler said.
“He’s playing with confidence, and he knows the belief that I have in him. He knows he’s got the ability to play through mistakes, and I’ve told him from the very beginning, just be aggressive, man. He’s got a really high basketball IQ. And what we’re seeing (now) is that translating to the defensive side more. It’s important for us. He gave us some great minutes today – got tasked with some tough challenges defensively at times, (and) he held his own for the most part.”
Until about a month ago, Chatman had never played more than 15 minutes in a game in his career. Over the last dozen or so games, Ohio State has relied on him for at least 20 per night, and he’s come up big more often than not. The next step for Chatman, according to Diebler, is continued improvement on the defensive end. According to the head coach, he’s starting to make strides in that area. Sunday was the latest example.
