The Ohio State basketball team battled at times against a very good UConn team, but in the end, it was too much talent, too much depth, and too many mistakes that led to an 84-68 loss in Hartford Friday night for the Buckeyes.

The loss dropped Ohio State's record to 2-2, and though both losses were against ranked opponents, there's a long way to go if this team hopes to make some noise in the Big Ten and get back to the NCAA Tournament.

After each game, we like to look back and see what we learned as takeaways and observations, and in this case, though there were good moments, there's still way too much this team has to improve upon, and that's going to be the main theme here.

Here are three things we think we learned about the Ohio State basketball team after the loss to the UConn Huskies.

The second half of games is a real problem for Ohio State

It's a troubling trend for the Buckeyes. In each of its last three games, Ohio State has been outscored in the second half after looking highly competitive, even upset-minded, in the first half. It's hard to know what the issue is, but it's happened way too often with Jake Diebler-coached teams.

Is it conditioning, tough-mindedness, or a lack of effort? It's hard to know, and it's probably a combination of many factors, but there's absolutely no way Ohio State is going to even be an issue for teams in the Big Ten, let alone try to get to the postseason. I don't even know how you get it figured out, but there's no doubt the coaching staff knows it has to change.

Anthony Thompson is not as advertised for Ohio State

Anthony Thompson is the highest-rated commit for Ohio State since Jared Sullinger, and he was expected to contribute immediately. Heck, Devin Royal transferred out of the program because he figured his slot was going to be taken over by the McDonald's All-American.

This team has enough talented players on it to be better than it is, but without Thompson becoming a significant scoring threat as everyone thought, John Mobley Jr. and Amare Bynum might have to be asked to shoulder too much of the load. We've seen one or two guys have to be all of the offense in the past, and it doesn't end well.

The Ohio State defense has to get better

Offensive struggles aside, if this team is going to reach its upside, it's the defensive side of the ball that has to get better. For whatever reason, this team's confidence comes and goes based on how it does on the offensive end, and that's the opposite of how a team should be built.

Defense travels, defense leads to offense, and defense can limit other teams when things aren't going well on your own offensive end. In this one, and in games before, the transition defense has left the lane wide open, and there have been too many guys who got to the rim without help. You can get the coaching staff to address this, or so we hope.

The Buckeyes need to start stacking wins and hopefully will beginning Monday against Prairie-View.