A lot of things have gone right for Chris Holtmann and his Ohio State Buckeyes as of late, after a difficult stretch from late-December to late-January saw them lose six of seven games. Additionally, they lost their freshman point guard, DJ Carton, to an indefinite leave of absence to address mental health issues.
Miraculously, the Buckeyes have won nine of their last 11 – and four in a row including back-to-back victories over ranked opponents Michigan and Illinois – despite Carton's absence and an injury to starting power forward Kyle Young four games ago.
Freshman E.J. Liddell was huge against Illinois in particular and is really coming on as of late and Luther Muhammad had a stretch where he regained his shooting touch to complement his always-useful tight defense but one of the other key factors in Ohio State's resurgence is the recent uptick in production from point guard CJ Walker.