Ugly. Painful. Damaging. Eye-opening. A harbinger of an awaiting NCAA disaster.

Ohio State’s 58-48 loss to Michigan State on Sat., Feb. 11, appeared to be all of the above and more as the green-clad Spartans bullied their way around the Value City Arena floor and reduced the nation’s third-ranked team to a quivering mess of offensive ineptitude.

The Buckeyes (21-4, 9-3) not only lost grip of a 39-game home win streak they also blew a chance to take a two-game lead in the Big Ten standings with just six league battles remaining in the regular season. And the 10-point defeat wasn’t even indicative enough of just how feeble OSU was.

Ohio State was a dreadful 7 of 21 from the field in the first half and a somehow-much-worse 7 of 32 after intermission to set, by far, a season-low shooting percentage of 26.4.

Worst of all, the outcome seemingly attaches a black cloud over Ohio State’s postseason chances – an eerie foreshadowing of what will happen to this squad if it faces a sturdy NCAA foe like Michigan State and isn’t able to produce any semblance out outside shooting to counterbalance the onus on All-American center Jared Sullinger inside.

All that is the bad news. Now it’s time to come down off the ledge just a bit and consider a very wacky but – in my mind – plausible thought: The Buckeyes can still win the rematch in East Lansing on March. They can do so even if the whole Big Ten enchilada is on the line.

There I said it. Or at least I typed it emphatically.

Let me start making a case – and I know you are skeptical out there – by going to the logic board: The Buckeyes are not going to be held to 14 field goals again this season. Period. They also are no going to have what amounts to a 1-for-4 outing for a whole game again, either. Won’t happen.

Yes, this team has gone into offensive funks and, yes, Michigan State had a very effective plan and the might to slow down OSU’s post game, but the Buckeyes’ previous worst shooting night was 24 for 62 at Kansas – and that was without Sullinger.

The beauty of major college, conference basketball is that usually a return game is in the offing, and sure enough MSU will have to prove its dominance a second time. I suspect that game will play out much differently.

Why, besides the simple laws of probability should anyone agree? Here’s why:

The Buckeyes did a lot to stop themselves. Michigan State rotated the lanky Adreian Payne and bulky Derrick Nix on Sullinger, as well as others, and the game plan worked well. But Sullinger simply missed several chippies he normally wouldn’t. Some of that seemed to be borne out of frustration and Sullinger looking around for a foul call that often didn’t come.

He was 5 of 15 from the field and tried so hard to bull his way inside that the Spartans were able to chop down and come up with several strips. In fact he committed a season-high number of turnovers to give him an unwanted triple-double: 17 points, 16 rebounds and 10 turnovers.

Also, Ohio State simply couldn’t buy a three-ball and finished just 2 of 15 from behind the arc – and that was with Sullinger hitting 1 of 2 from there. The other triple was an early bomb by Aaron Craft.

Deshaun Thomas has his hands full with Draymond Green – who doesn’t? – and his defensive woes carried over to his offense. Ironically, he hit a jumper seconds into the game and ended up 2 of 12 from the field. So did senior wing William Buford, Ohio State’s other consistent offensive option.

Thomas played quality minutes last season but never before had been given a gamelong assignment to guard Green, who is a headache with the way he runs the floor, passes, makes quick power moves inside and also can hit top-of-the-key jumpers, often when trailing on the break.

Thomas will be much more aware of all that he has to handle next time and should also have a better shooting night in the rematch with Sparty.

Buford, who was just coming off a career-high 29-point effort against Purdue, followed up with a terrible night. He made a picturesque turnaround fadeaway on the baseline and had just one other field goal – a left-handed bat at a high lob from Lenzelle Smith Jr. on one of just two fastbreak baskets OSU logged all night.

The other 10 shots, all misfires, can pretty much go into the “terrible decision” file. Instead of going back to the turnaround, he tried to turn in a few times – one was a throw off the back rim, another was shorted and another was a high-archer when he realized he was well-defended. He also fired a three that was blocked and had another fastbreak attempt sent away in a particularly bad sequence just before the under-12 timeout of the second half.

Buford has endured an up-and-down final season in scarlet and gray and sometimes is guilty of making up his mind too soon with the ball instead of playing with a flow, but he’s too good a player for this to continue through the end of the season. Plus, he now knows how Branden Dawson likes to play him and should be able to adjust next time.

He hit a big three in the waning minutes of the win at Wisconsin a week earlier and he’s got more big shots left in him.

MSU head coach Tom Izzo wanted to take credit for the struggles of Thomas and Buford but admitted that the pair simply missed several shots they normally would make.

The pressure mounted as the game wore on. You could see it. The crowd was almost begging for a run but the Buckeyes couldn’t oblige, playing tight and a little overwhelmed.

Evan Ravenel made a good move to get around a defender and then fell to the ground as if he surprised himself. Smith lined up a big three in front of his bench that could have triggered a comeback and never stroked the ball. Craft stopped showing the offensive aggression he displayed early in the game.

And head coach Thad Matta tightened right along with his team.

In the first half, when it was clear OSU was in for a struggle Matta called on just two reserves – Ravenel, who played five minutes in relief of Thomas, and Sam Thompson, who played four minutes in place of Smith.

No Shannon Scott to give Craft a breather. No Amir Williams to experiment with some length and live legs inside to offset Payne’s strong night (15 points, four rebounds, two blocks). No Jordan Sibert to see if he could hit an outside shot and provide a lift.

I didn’t expect to see J.D Weatherspoon, LaQuinton Ross or Trey McDonald with the stakes so high but someone other than Ravenel or Thompson could have been at least decent out there.

Thompson ended up playing 14 minutes and logging two points. Ravenel didn’t score in eight minutes. They had three rebounds combined.

At the Breslin Center in a few weeks the roles could be reversed and the Spartans could find themselves desperately trying to protect their home court in front of a nervous crowd.

Michigan State didn’t have to play an A game to win but in reality may not be any better than Ohio State. Izzo talked about leadership afterward and the Spartans get a checkmark in that category mostly because of Green. They play with toughness and seem to have good cohesion this year as opposed to the last couple seasons.

But this is not a great MSU team by Izzos’s standards or that of the program. He knows his team benefited from facing an OSU squad that was pressing.

It’s hard to believe the streak ended without an opposing player having to make several clutch shots, but other than Payne’s 6-for-6 outing, that was the case. Green was just 5 of 16, point guard Keith Appling was 4 of 10, Nix was 3 of 8 and three other players had a lone field goal.

Some of the most memorable Ohio State losses in The Schott – and there haven’t been that many – were the result of fantastic performances from star guards who were able to hit crowd-quieting shots. E’Twaun Moore. Kalin Lucas. Shannon Brown. Vincent Grier. Andre Emmett.

MSU’s guards this year are serviceable to slightly above average but certainly not of a star caliber. The Spartans could run OSU off the floor at the Breslin Center but odds are the Buckeyes will slow them down enough to make guys like Appling and Brandon Wood make shots over top of the their defense.

There is precedence for Ohio State still pulling this off. The Buckeyes actually were swept by Indiana in 1992 but won the Big Ten title outright when the Hoosiers were tripped up by Purdue at the end of the season.

Speaking of the Boilers, they once upset MSU at the then-newly minted Breslin Center to delay the Spartans unfurling their Big Ten championship banner that was waiting in the rafters.

It can be done. The Buckeyes can win at Michigan State with championship implications hanging in the balance. In fact, they did it in 2006, ’07 and last year. Is this OSU team on par with those squads? Maybe not. But they may be good enough to redeem themselves in East Lansing – even three weeks after a clunker.