Riding 15-game road losing streak, history is at stake as Ohio State men travel to Wisconsin

Yes, Ohio State is 2-8 in its last 10 games. Yes, the Buckeyes are 4-9 in the Big Ten. And yes, this team is almost certainly missing post-season play (of any kind) for the second consecutive season — it’s been that bad lately.

But don’t you dare try to tell me nothing is at stake as the Buckeyes (14-10, 4-9) travel to Madison Tuesday night to take on a reeling Wisconsin team. The Badgers (16-8, 8-5) have lost their last four games, including a 22-point drubbing at the hands of 11th-place Rutgers this weekend.

However, Wisconsin is still No. 18 in KenPom, No. 21 in the NET, and are 11-2 at home this season. That’s all to say that this Wisconsin team is still very talented, deep, and dangerous. Beating the Badgers within the not-so-friendly confines of the Kohl Center will not be easy.

History is at stake Tuesday night in Madison, as Ohio State would tie the program record for longest road losing streak if it doesn’t walk out of the Kohl Center victorious. A loss Tuesday night would make it 16 in a row, dating back to Jan. 1, 2023, when the Buckeyes knocked off Northwestern in Evanston for its most recent road win.

Winning on the road is hard — always has been, always will be. That’s why the NCAA values road wins more than it values home wins when evaluating for the NCAA Tournament, and that is why teams celebrate road wins so heavily, especially ones that happen in conference play.

Big Ten teams have a combined record of 31-74 this year playing on the road, winning 29.5% of the time. However, at 0-6, Ohio State is the only Big Ten team that has yet to win a road game. Michigan State and Nebraska have each won on the road once, and the other 11 B1G squads have all won at least two road games — even Michigan!

During the 1996-1997 season — the final season under Randy Ayers — Ohio State lost its final eight road games. Then Jim O’Brien took over, and the Buckeyes lost their first eight road games of the 1997-1998 season as well. From 1996-1998, Ohio State had a combined record of 18-39 (6-28 in Big Ten play) and missed the NCAA Tournament both years.

Ohio State is 30-29 over the past two seasons (so far), with a 9-24 record in Big Ten play. The two most recent Buckeye teams have been better than the 1996-1998 teams overall, but have been concerningly similar to those awful teams in Big Ten play.

The typical rule of thumb is to win most of your home games, try to win half of your road games, and you should be in a pretty good place come March. This team is 10-4 at home, so they’ve taken care of the “win most of your home games” part, even after blowing an 18-point lead to Indiana last week at the Schott. The issue, obviously, is that the Buckeyes have not won half of their road games.

Can you imagine a world where Ohio State was 3-3 on the road, instead of 0-6? It would have a record of 17-7, and be 7-6 in Big Ten play. That would put this team pretty safely into the NCAA Tournament field.

Alas, Chris Holtmann and his Buckeyes don’t have any road wins to boast. Part of it may be youth. Winning on the road is tough, but winning on the road with a bunch of underclassmen is tougher. Another issue is how bad this team is in the second half of games. They have the second-worst second-half point differential in the Big Ten, ahead of only Michigan. Receding into your shell in the second half is how you lose games, especially on the road.

But more than either of those things, this group of players just doesn’t know how to win yet. Neither the freshman or sophomore classes — nine of the 13 players on the roster — know what it’s like to play on a good team with NCAA Tournament hopes. Jamison Battle has only played on bad teams before coming to Ohio State — another bad team.

The only two players on this roster who have experienced winning in any form are Zed Key and Dale Bonner, who won plenty of games while he was at Baylor. Until this group strings several wins together and really learns how to win, it’s hard to envision them winning any big games, like Tuesday’s showdown in Madison.

And if they don’t win, they’ll get the “opportunity” to have that record all to themselves next Thursday at Minnesota.