OSU also played without their best player for almost the whole first half because he picked up two early fouls. They weren't anymore tick tack than ours, in fact I iirc one was pretty clearly a charge on Kofi. If Wesson hadn't gotten those I think the first half would have looked much different.
What I saw was mostly bigger, stronger players getting fouled more. It was comical watching Gio try to guard any of the O S U bigs. Of course he had to foul, there wasn't anything else he could do.
Kofi was no match for K. Wesson either.
There may have been a bit of usual Big Ten homerism but to me most of it was just being outmatched physically.