More on Ohio State's unusual lack of variability:
Per the NCAA, Ohio State is:
- 1-7 in Quad 1
- 4-1 in Quad 2
- 5-0 in Quad 3
- 6-0 in Quad 4
They are THISCLOSE to being 0-8 in Quad 1 and 5-0 in Quad 2, allow me to explain:
Ohio State's lonely Quad 1 win is their 86-82 win in Evanston back on December 6. That is BARELY a Quad 1 win in two ways:
- It was a close game so Ohio State could easily have lost and
- Northwestern is currently #73 and road games against the top-75 are Quad 1 so if NU drops more than a couple spots that ceases to be a Quad 1 win it has been in-and-out of Quad 1 status.
Ohio State's Quad 2 loss is the game that I'm sure Diebler would most like to have back. Ohio State led Pitt for most of the second half and after Pitt tied it up the Buckeyes took a 66-64 lead on a putback of a missed shot with just 00:03 on the clock. Pittsburgh made a 'hail mary' half-court shot at the buzzer to win 67-66. Pittsburgh is #125 and road games against 76-135 are Quad 2.
Ohio State's remaining games are almost all Quad 1 and it feels like they are going to need to win at least one of those Quad 1 games but maybe not, remaining games:
- 2/14 vs Virginia (Neutral in Nashville) - UVA is #18 and 1-50 neutral site are Quad 1
- 2/17 vs Wisconsin - UW is #37 and 31-75 at home are Quad 2
- 2/22 at Michigan State - MSU is #11 and 1-75 on the road are Quad 1
- 2/25 at Iowa - Iowa is #26 and 1-75 on the road are Quad 1
- 3/1 vs Purdue - PU is #10 and 1-30 at home are Quad 1
- 3/4 at Penn State - PSU is #117 and 76-135 on the road are Quad 2
- 3/7 vs Indiana - IU is #30 and 1-30 at home are Quad 1
So Ohio State has five Quad 1 and two Quad 2 games remaining. The Wisconsin game could move up to Quad 1 if UW moves up a few spots and the Indiana game could move down to Quad 2 if IU drops a spot.
They are going to end up being compared to teams that have more good wins but also more bad losses. I'm not sure how that shakes out.
