The Ohio State Buckeyes entered the NCAA Tournament as one of the favorites while armed with the second seed of the South division. To the surprise of many, they suffered a huge upset against the 15th seeded Oral Roberts in the first-round proceedings by way of a 75-72 defeat on Friday afternoon.

After being eliminated, Buckeyes sophomore forward E.J. Liddell was bashed by many of the team's fans as they expressed their disappointment in his Instagram DMs, which he eventually posted on Twitter.

The 20-year-old swingman was also puzzled as to why he received so much hate on social media. Despite the incident, Liddell insisted that he isn't holding any sort of ill feelings towards Buckeyes fans.

Buckeyes head coach Chris Holtmann and his men garnered high expectations upon entering March Madness after they amassed a 21-9 record in the regular season. They also earned an appearance in the Big Ten championship game against the Illinois Fighting Illini earlier this week. However, they only settled for a second-place finish after sustaining a 91-88 overtime defeat.

Several days later, Ohio State failed to carry the momentum in the NCAA tournament as they faced a resilient Oral Roberts squad in the opening matchup. Liddell topped his team in scoring with 23 points, 14 rebounds, and three assists. Senior guard Duane Washington Jr. also provided a lift with 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Buckeyes.

Despite their production, the Golden Eagles refused to go down as they extended the game to overtime to run away with a surprising 75-72 victory in Indianapolis.

The Buckeyes' bid for the national title may have come to an abrupt end but the criticism that they received after a tough loss should only serve as motivation for Ohio State to come up with better outings moving forward.