Ohio State Basketball: 2019-20 takeaways from Buckeyes blowout win over UNC

1) Ohio State’s defense is special

It’s time we started talking about how good Ohio State’s defense is.

They entered the night without allowing more than 57 points in a game this season, and they left Chapel Hill with that streak intact. North Carolina shot just 27.4 percent from the floor – by far a season-low – and failed to get anything going at any point in the game.

The Buckeyes packed the paint in an effort to limit UNC’s bigs inside and threw two defenders at Cole Anthony at virtually all times to cut off his driving lanes, and the result was another suffocating performance. Anthony, a projected top-five pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, still scored 15 points, but he did so on just 4/15 shooting.

Ohio State wanted to keep the Heels out of the paint and they succeeded. Almost half of UNC’s shots came from three-point range – not a normal amount for a team that loves to dominate inside – and a large portion of their shots from inside the arc came from mid-range rather than at the basket.

Buckeyes head coach Chris Holtmann praised his roster after the game, telling reporters that, while they have great individual players on that end of the floor, the way they play as a team has made a huge difference.

"“We have good individual defenders, and sometimes we can put several really good individual defenders on the floor at the same time. Collectively, when we play together, we have a chance to be really, really good defensively.”"

Ohio State now has the nation’s second most efficient defense, trailing only Virginia, and lead the nation in effective field goal percentage defense. They don’t force many turnovers – UNC only had 10 on the game – they simply stall out your offense.

The Buckeyes did the same thing in another 25-point victory against a top 10 team (at the time) in Villanova, as they limited the Wildcats to 30.6 percent shooting in that game. Holtmann’s group only played mid-major competition between the two games (OSU played Villanova on Nov. 13), and he told reporters he’s looking forward to seeing if they can keep up this level of play on the defensive end as they get into Big Ten play.

"I’ll be interested to see as we move forward how this plays out when we continue to play similar competition over a longer stretch. I think that’s the real test of your group and how committed you are on that end. But we’ve certainly had a good start."

Ohio State certainly hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down, and their defense is the biggest reason they should be a consensus top five team.