It’s all part of the blueprint at Ohio State.

Not necessarily the 9-0 start, a notable turnaround for a team that went 7-8 a year ago. Or Sunday’s 16-7 shredding of Denver to cap a week that started with a weather-delayed victory at Towson. The Buckeyes welcome those things as they begin a grueling closing stretch to the regular season.

It’s just that more basic things matter most to coach Nick Myers and his program.

“We try not to talk about conference championships and national championships,” Myers said. “It’s, ‘Hey, are we better than we were yesterday?’ We’re chasing the best version of ourselves.”

So far, so good, at least in 2017. The Buckeyes made a run to the NCAA quarterfinals two seasons ago, but sputtered after winning five of their first six last year. What followed was a six-game slide that featured four one-goal losses.

But they wrapped up the year with a 12-10 win over Rutgers. Just as the Scarlet Knights used a season-ending defeat of Ohio State in 2015 as a springboard the following spring, the same has happened to the Buckeyes so far this year.

That “season of almosts” led to the returning players making a commitment to turn things around right after that Rutgers game. Myers and his staff and were in communication with players throughout the summer, and by the time the team returned to campus in the fall, there was both energy and urgency channeled toward improvement.

The offense has made strides, already exceeding its total of extra-man goals from last year. But there is a similar level of balance on this year’s roster, with seven players accounting for at least eight goals, but only one with more than 14 (Tre Leclaire, who has 18).

“That’s a big part of our blueprint: We, not me,” Myers said.

Two things usually are a welcome part of any formula for winning: faceoff and goalie play. The Buckeyes are benefitting from both, with senior Jake Withers winning 64.1 percent of his draws and senior Tom Carey (61.9 save percentage) taking a step forward while benefitting from a strong defense in front of him.

Ohio State visits Notre Dame on Saturday, with five weeks of Big Ten play and the conference tournament to follow. That stretch ultimately will determine the Buckeyes’ fate.

It’s just as well, then, that Myers offered a steady outlook after his team collected its most notable two victories of the season in less than a week.

“Not a whole lot has changed,” Myers said. “The last five days, everybody wants to talk. … We shot the ball 18 percent against Towson. You don’t shoot 18 percent and win many games. Then we come home and shot the ball close to 50 percent against Denver. Somewhere in the middle is who you actually are. At the end of the day, we’re trying to become a consistent team and we feel our biggest opponent is ourselves. We have to try to continue to minimize mistakes.”