For two games, coach Thad Matta and his players didn’t have an answer for whether the relationship was direct or coincidental. Matta chose to believe the latter, for a time.

The Ohio State men’s basketball team did not shoot less than 44.7 percent from the field in any of its first seven games.

In the Buckeyes’ next two games — playing without injured All-America center Jared Sullinger — they shot less than 40 in each.

Sullinger returned on Wednesday night against South Carolina-Upstate, and the Buckeyes’ accuracy rebounded to 56.9 percent.

“I don’t know how much he has to do with that,” Matta said after the game, “but, obviously, there may be a common denominator there.”

It’s one the Buckeyes hope they won’t have to go without again this season.

Sullinger, who came off the bench on Wednesday, is expected to be back in the starting lineup today when the second-ranked Buckeyes play at South Carolina.

He played 25 minutes against Upstate and finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

“He had quiet production. He had 12 and 10 and it didn’t seem like he did a whole lot,” Upstate coach Eddie Payne said. “It was a good first outing for him coming off a back injury.”

Sullinger missed two games and two weeks of practice recovering from back spasms he experienced after the Buckeyes’ victory over Duke on Nov. 29. He was cleared to return on Wednesday morning.

Without him in games against Texas-Pan American on Dec. 3 and Kansas last Saturday, Ohio State made 39.7 percent and 38.7 percent of their shots, respectively.

“The fact we haven’t shot the ball well, I think there are a lot of things we can do better, starting with passing. Some of the passes we threw to our shooters were atrocious (at Kansas),” Matta said before the game against Upstate.

“As I told these guys, I’m not buying the fact that because Jared’s not in there we can’t make shots.”

After the Upstate game, however, Matta acknowledged there could be something to it.

The Buckeyes actually missed five shots in a row, three of them by Sullinger, after he entered the game with 14:37 left in the first half on Wednesday. After that, however, they shot 62.2 percent from the field in pulling away from the Spartans, who led 21-17 after the home team’s string of five consecutive missed shots.

“Truth be told, I threatened them — in a positive tone — that we needed to shoot well over 50 percent tonight,” Matta said. “I think they were a little bit relieved that we did that.”

But he also acknowledged the value of having a player like Sullinger to draw a defense’s attention away from the other four players on the court. His replacements, Evan Ravenel and Amir Williams, do not command that extra attention.

“A big thing that we as a team (do) is when we throw it into Jared, we tend to stand and watch (because of) what he’s able to do with the ball,” point guard Aaron Craft said.

“Without him in, our (other) post players are definitely capable but they just haven’t had the experience and don’t have the post moves Jared does. But we still stand and watch, and that just allows the defense to crowd the floor. That’s on us as to move and cut and not let the defense to stay stationary.”

bbaptist@dispatch.com