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For better or worse, which Ohio State lineups have contributed late in recent games?

Published

6 months ago

January 19, 2024

Press Room

For better or worse, which Ohio State lineups have contributed late in recent games?

The first crack in the Ohio State armor was delivered by Saturday’s opponent.

Riding high at 8-1 overall and on the cusp of climbing into the Associated Press top 25, the Buckeyes led by 18 points at Penn State with 15:31 to play only to stumble their way to an 83-80 loss. It was a gradual surrender by the Buckeyes, who would use 10 different lineup combinations in the final 15 minutes in a futile effort to stave off the Penn State comeback.

The loss showed that Ohio State wasn’t past occasionally getting burned when playing with fire, and that lesson has been hammered home again during the last two weeks. When the Buckeyes host the Nittany Lions in the rematch, they’ll do so on a three-game losing streak that has seen them again falter late. But unlike in the Penn State game, or the Jan. 10 home loss to No. 15 Wisconsin, Ohio State rallied late after falling behind by double digits only to fall short.

Down by 10 at Indiana with 3:34 to play, Ohio State made it a 67-65 game with 1:44 remaining but couldn’t get another stop and score to tie the game or take the lead in a 71-65 loss on Jan. 6. Nine days later against Michigan, the Buckeyes turned a 12-point deficit into a four-point lead with a 16-0 run around the midpoint of the second half but couldn’t hold on from there in a 73-65 loss inside the Crisler Center.

In examining the lineups used by coach Chris Holtmann in both games, there is no real overlap between the players who led the temporary comebacks – or the ones who allowed the deficits to grow.

At Indiana, Bruce Thornton, Roddy Gayle Jr., Jamison Battle and Felix Okpara were on the court for the entirety of the late-game comeback as Scotty Middleton and Evan Mahaffey rotated in and out of the lineup. As Indiana turned Ohio State’s 50-49 lead into a 66-56 Hoosier advantage during a span of 7:36, Ohio State’s starting lineup (Thornton, Gayle, Battle, Mahaffey and Okpara) was outscored 4-0 in 2:37. Then, in 21 seconds as the Buckeyes were rallying late, the starters outscored the Hoosiers 2-0.

Against Michigan, though, the Buckeyes rallied by using three different lineups that had three players in common, two of whom haven’t made much of a statistical impact in recent weeks.

While Ohio State rotated Thornton, Gayle and Middleton through those lineups, the constants were Dale Bonner, Zed Key and Okpara. It was the most success the Buckeyes have had playing Key and Okpara together all season, and from 12:00 until 4:53 Ohio State outscored Michigan 16-8 with Bonner, Key and Okpara together.

The heart of that run came with Gayle and Middleton in the backcourt, allowing the Buckeyes to outscore Michigan 6-0 in 1:55 before Thornton returned with 8:09 to play and the lead at 56-55.

Ohio State Buckeyes: Join the Ohio State Sports Insider text group with Bill Rabinowitz, Joey Kaufman Adam Jardy

“In particular, thought our bench gave us a lift,” Holtmann said after the game. “Dale was great in that second-half stretch. Playing big helped us. Obviously we’ve got to finish games and close out games better but I thought there were really some positives we can take into this week.”

With 4:53 left and the Ohio State lead at two points, Holtmann went back to his starters and rode them until the final seconds. They were outscored, 12-6, in the next 4:29 to finish the game at minus-4 (36 points scored, 40 allowed) in 20:47.

Against Penn State, Ohio State’s starters were plus-3 (31 points scored, 28 allowed) in 12:10. Against Indiana, they were minus-6 (17 points scored, 23 allowed) in 14:03. The 20:47 of playing time at Michigan was the most for an Ohio State lineup in a game this season.

“When our body’s hurting in the last 2-3 minutes of the game, we’ve got to take that next step,” Okpara said. “We do it in practice every day. We’ve got to keep going hard when we’re tired.”

Bonner’s play at Michigan, and Key’s ability to play alongside Okpara, could help with that. The Penn State rematch will be the next chance to find out.

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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Beryl's wrath to be felt as far north as Michigan, Ohio this week

Published

5 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Beryl's wrath to be felt as far north as Michigan, Ohio this week

Tropical Storm Beryl continues charging toward Texas Sunday morning, and forecasters still expect it to continue strengthening before making landfall in Texas early on Monday morning.

While Beryl is expected to bring hurricane conditions to Texas on Monday, strong winds and rain from the cyclone will move into the Midwest by midweek.

Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio are among the states that will feel the impact of Beryl.

Once Beryl hits Texas, the cyclone is expected to travel north throughout the South and Midwest.

Beryl forecast cone
(FOX Weather)

Beryl’s current forecast cone shows the storm will weaken as it moves north but maintains tropical depression strength from Arkansas through Michigan throughout the week. A tropical depression is a cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 38 mph or less. Unlike tropical storms and hurricanes, tropical depressions are identified by numbers rather than names.

Current forecasts have Beryl’s remnants extending into Ohio and Michigan by the end of the workweek.

Several inches of rain are possible as the storm treks north, leading to significant flash flooding concerns.

Forecasters expect heavy rainfall to spread from eastern Texas through central Illinois by midweek.

“At this time, the higher (…) amounts focus over northwest Arkansas to central Illinois with the highest over the Ozarks. Areal averages are expected to be around 2 to 5 inches with local maximums upwards of 8 inches,” the Weather Prediction Center wrote Sunday.

Beryl forecast cone
(FOX Weather)

Beryl formed in the Atlantic Ocean on June 29 and became the season’s first hurricane. The storm broke records throughout its trek and is expected to strengthen ahead of its impending Texas landfall.

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Muskegon Clippers pitchers struggle in relief, fall to visiting Southern Ohio

Published

12 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Muskegon Clippers pitchers struggle in relief, fall to visiting Southern Ohio

By Dave Hart LocalSportsJournal.com MUSKEGON – Rough pitching has suddenly been a weakness in recent contests for the Muskegon Clippers. On Friday, the Clippers allowed eight late runs before falling to Southern Ohio. It was a similar result on Saturday night as the Clippers’ bullpen allowed eight runs in the seventh inning and six more

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Alex Palou kicks off IndyCar hybrid era with pole at Mid-Ohio

Published

19 hours ago

July 6, 2024

Press Room

Alex Palou kicks off IndyCar hybrid era with pole at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio – With a brand-new tool at the drivers’ fingertips and countless more data figures to track and analyze, two of the best teams and drivers in IndyCar couldn’t help but make series history Saturday afternoon.

In the debut of hybrid technology in qualifying at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou edged Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward by 24 ten-thousands of a second to take pole for Sunday’s 80-lap race, marking the tightest front row in the Fast 6 qualifying format’s history that dates back to 2005 (0.0027 seconds in the 2023 GMR Grand Prix on the IMS road course).

“It means he went to the bathroom before qualifying,” quipped O’Ward to thunderous laughs in the Mid-Ohio media center. “We’re all out here pushing, pushing, pushing. That’s the beauty of it and what makes it exciting and fun. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

“It’s irritating and annoying to miss it by just that little bit. I was really happy with the lap, but there’s always more available. You find little bits and pieces here and there, but this is a really strong start for tomorrow, and it should be a good race.”

At a track that has seen nine different winners in its last 10 IndyCar races – with seven of those winners coming from the front row – starting position means everything at Mid-Ohio, particularly with a brand-new repave and where teams will be learning on the fly about how to best maximize the new 60 horsepower boosts available each lap.

‘Combatting the change’: How introduction of hybrid will (and won’t) change IndyCar in 2024

O’Ward and Palou agreed that a car, driver and team reaping the full benefits from IndyCar’s new Energy Recovery System might gain a maximum of two tenths a second per lap, making the bespoke system something too impactful to ignore – but not something to prioritize while forgetting about traditional driving and optimal car balance across an entire lap.

“You don’t want to give up one-and-a-half tenths for free that’s available to you, but it’s a lot of work to get those,” Palou said. “But it’s free lap time, so you need to take it.”

“I think tomorrow, it’ll be a challenge for everybody to see whether you’re going to keep the same strategy or change it up a little bit,” added O’Ward. “It’s become a tool for all the drivers and the teams to either make your lives a lot easier or harder. I think it will be interesting.”

The relatively small amounts of boost – drivers are allowed to use 310 kilojoules of energy from the ERS per lap, amounting to eight or so seconds of 60 additional horsepower – have made for a bit of a paradox for teams in the leadup to this weekend as they try to decipher what to tinker with and how much.

Every change leads to another – potentially leading to information overload, Palou admitted. The system isn’t expected to lead to or allow for a massive sea change in the drivers finishing on podiums, winning races or capturing poles, but it’s also something that can have just enough an impact that teams can’t ignore it entirely and solely treat it as a 100-pound brick in the back of their cars either.

“There’s too much stuff to look at now – too many options to get distracted with,” said Palou, adding that the amount of information to scroll through in the cockpit has already made an impression. “The engineers have the ability to focus on what’s really important. This morning, I was saying, ‘Let’s take a look at deploy and regen,’ and my engineer said, ‘Don’t look at that. Look at your driving first, and then focus on the percent of charge.’”

After nearly five years, it’s arrived: Explaining IndyCar’s new hybrid system

Several of Palou’s title challengers starting in a hole Sunday

Staring from pole Sunday at a track that has favored strong qualifying performances has a chance to pay big dividends for Palou, as the two-time champ enters the oval-heavy portion of the 2024 schedule starting next weekend. Yet to log an oval win among his 11 career victories that have all come in the last three-plus years, Palou currently holds a 23-point cushion over 2022 champ Will Power and 32 over his Ganassi teammate and six-time champ Scott Dixon.

Only three members of the current top-10 made Saturday’s Fast 6 – Colton Herta qualified 4th – and five of those failed to make it out of the first round, including Power (who qualified 16th and is 2nd in points), Dixon (14th/3rd), Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood (15th/5th), Josef Newgarden (18th/9th) and Felix Rosenqvist (13th/10th).

Standout performances

Two of IndyCar’s young guns shined Saturday, including:

David Malukas: qualified 3^rd in just his second race back from his surgically-repaired left wrist and in his second race with Meyer Shank Racing. The 22-year-old’s results also marks the best for the team’s home track in MSR’s history.

Christian Rasmussen: After a rough start to his rookie IndyCar campaign where he currently sits 22nd in points, the young Dane made his first career Fast 12 Saturday at Mid-Ohio. Ahead of this weekend, he’d only started inside the top-15 twice. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver qualified 9th for Sunday’s race.

How to watch, listen: IndyCar Series Mid-Ohio schedule, TV, streaming in hybrid engine debut

IndyCar qualifying results at Mid-Ohio

1. Alex Palou

2. Pato O’Ward

3. David Malukas

4. Colton Herta

5. Marcus Armstrong

6. Marcus Ericsson

7. Scott McLaughlin

8. Alexander Rossi

9. Christian Rasmussen

10. Christian Lundgaard

11. Linus Lundqvist

12. Romain Grosjean

13. Felix Rosenqvist

14. Scott Dixon

15. Kyle Kirkwood

16. Will Power

17. Nolan Siegel

18. Josef Newgarden

19. Graham Rahal

20. Rinus VeeKay

21. Santino Ferrucci

22. Agustin Canapino

23. Pietro Fittipaldi

24. Kyffin Simpson

25. Toby Sowery

26. Sting Ray Robb

27. Jack Harvey

*For undergoing an unapproved engine change by moving to their fifth of the year, Armstrong, Rosenqvist and Fittipaldi all will drop six spots on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

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