The Ohio State Buckeyes have won four games in a row and are all alone in fourth place in the Big Ten. Typically when you're that high up in a conference that good you are a lock for the NCAA tournament, but that is not the case for the Buckeyes. Ohio State has a lot of work to do to get into the tournament, and they may have to do it without one of their best players. Sophomore forward Jae'Sean Tate is dealing with a shoulder injury, and his season may be in jeopardy, according to Kyle Robertson of The Columbus Dispatch.
Tate has started all 28 of Ohio State's games so far this season, but his shoulder hasn't been 100 percent for some of the season. In Saturday's game against Nebraska Tate hurt his shoulder in the first half and was taken out for the remainder of the half. Tate did come back out to start the second half, but he appeared to re-injure the shoulder toward the very end of the game.
After the game, head coach Thad Matta said Tate was just dealing with a stinger and was optimistic that he would be fine. However, Tate underwent an MRI, and there is concern that his season could be over. Tate has previously had shoulder issues in his career. Back when he was a senior in high school he had shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum after playing through the injury for more than a year. The good news is that this injury is to his left shoulder while that past surgery was to his right shoulder.
Tate was recently all over the internet after he got blown by while slapping the floor on defense. That was certainly a blunder on Tate's part, but overall he has been very good for Ohio State this season. Tate is third on the team with his 11.7 points per game and is second with his 6.4 rebounds per game. The sophomore also leads the team with 1.3 steals per game and is shooting a team-best 35 percent from the three-point line.
Ohio State's next game is a huge one at home against Michigan State in what would be a much-needed marquee win. As of Monday Ohio State isn't even on Joe Lundardi of ESPN's radar for the NCAA tournament, but there are many who think that if they win two of their last three regular season games they will be right in the mix. Those games, though, are extremely difficult as they are at home against Michigan State and Iowa then the Buckeyes end the season at Michigan State. With Tate in the lineup those games would be tough, but if he has to miss them they will be even tougher. Tate, though, does have a history of playing through injuries so we will see on Tuesday night if he is able to give it a go.
