The upside for Marshall playing at Ohio State in Columbus on Monday evening is that the Thundering Herd have little time to stew over their performance on Saturday, when they blew an 11-point halftime lead in an 81-76 home loss to Toledo.
“We’ve got a Big Ten team on Monday,” Marshall guard Noah Otshudi said. “So we’ve got to flip the page quick and just dial in on the small details because those types of teams, they’re pretty much good at the details. So we have to do an even better job than we did (vs. Toledo) to match up with those guys.”
Ohio State (1-1) did the opposite, having been tied at 44 with an overmatched Youngstown State team with 15 minutes to play before pulling away for an 89-65 victory on Friday.
“We played so unselfishly, so good offensively,” Ohio State forward Andrija Jelavic said. “I think the last 13 to 15 minutes should be the blueprint of our team.”
The 6-foot-11 Kentucky transfer provides the inside presence that has been lacking in the program for years. Jelavic scored a career-high 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds vs. Youngstown State.
“I think specifically the last three weeks, I thought he really raised his level,” Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said. “He showed great maturity because we had some really direct conversations. He took the coaching and then he went to work.
“And the consistency at which he’s operated since then, I mean, he had some great moments before, don’t get me wrong, but I just think it’s been a whole other level and he’s got great instincts.”
Marshall (1-1) is led by Bryce Slay, who had 19 points in a season-opening win over Buffalo last Monday and scored the Herd’s first 14 points against Toledo before finishing with a career-best 23, but it wasn’t enough to withstand the Rockets.
“We have to shift our focus to Ohio State,” Marshall coach Corny Jackson said. “Every loss, depending on how you look at it, is a lesson. Hopefully, we learned a valuable lesson from this.”