Well, that was a disaster. Villanova got absolutely dismantled by No. 16 Ohio State, falling behind by double-figures before the first media timeout and never recovering.

Villanova got blitzed right from the opening tip and struggled to ever steady themselves.

Ohio State started the game lights out from deep, while the Cats struggled to get shots to fall and in the blink of an eye Villanova trailed 9-0. The onslaught continued, aided by Villanova turnovers, and the Buckeyes built the lead to 40-13. The Wildcats showed a bit of life to close the half with a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 40-22 at the break.

And boy did Villanova need that break. The ‘Cats shot 26.7 percent from the floor and 25 percent from three in the first half, committing 10 turnovers. Ohio State connected on 53.6 percent from the field and 60 percent from three. We mentioned that prior to the game that Ohio State hadn’t been generating a lot of steals. They had five in the first half. It was pretty much a disaster at both ends of the floor except for the final two and a half minutes, where the Wildcats actually looked somewhat like a Villanova basketball team.

Unfortunately, that run proved not to be a sign of things to come, as Villanova was once again thoroughly outplayed in the second half. The result was a thorough 76-51 defeat. ‘Nova shot a dismal 31.1 percent from the floor and 34.5 percent from three. Conversely, Ohio State shot 60 percent from the floor and 56.3 percent from deep. You’re not going to win many games with those kinds of numbers.

It’s true that Ohio State was anomalously hot, but Villanova’s defense did very little to make the Buckeyes uncomfortable offensively and there were far too many blatant lapses that aided Ohio State’s hot shooting.

Offensively, the ‘Cats tossed up brick after brick. Saddiq Bey had an incredibly uncharacteristic night, shooting just 1-8 from the field. He was far from alone in those struggles: Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (3-11), Justin Moore (2-6), Collin Gillespie (4-11), and Brandon Slater (0-6) all scuffled offensively. Cole Swider (4-7, 11 points) and Jermaine Samuels (5-11, 14 points) were the only semblance of bright spots offensively. Again, we need to give some credit to Ohio State here, they are very good defensively. But ‘Nova looked unsure of itself on offense and was rushing courtesy of the early deficit.

Even if ‘Nova had played better and Ohio State wasn’t quite so hot, I’m not sure Villanova would have won this game. Every loose ball seemed to bounce right to the Buckeyes. One first-half sequence summed up the kind of night it was for Villanova: Brandon Slater got a block on defense but the ball bounced right back to D.J. Carton and he scored. Then at the other end, Slater had a three go three-quarters of the way down and then come back out.

If you’re looking for positives, the ball movement was solid in the second half and ‘Nova only committed two second-half turnovers. That’s about it.

At the end of the day, Villanova ran into a buzz saw. Ohio State was anomalously hot, ‘Nova was anomalously cold, and the bounces weren’t going Villanova’s way. When that happens, the result is usually exactly what we saw Wednesday night.

The game was eerily reminiscent of last season’s loss at the hands of Michigan, and hopefully that trend doesn’t continue as the Wildcats lost the game after Michigan to Furman. ‘Nova will look to avoid that fate and get back on track on Saturday when it hosts Ohio at Wells Fargo Center.