Ohio State vs. Penn State
Bryce Jordan Center, State College, PA
Feb. 27th, 2014 at 7:00PM ET (ESPN 2)

While the Penn State Nittany Lions (13-14, 4-10 Big Ten) are floating around the Mason-Dixon Line, they’ve shown a lot of improvement this season under head coach Pat Chambers. It’s safe to say the Buckeyes won’t take the Nittany Lions lightly, as they lost in overtime back in Columbus on January 29th. They’ve also been competitive in a number of games they’ve lost. With the one-two punch of D.J. Newbill (17.4 points per game) and Tim Frazier (16.0 points per game), Penn State is dangerous every time out.

One aspect of their game to keep in mind is their lack of assists per game. They only average 11.6 per game which is 264th in the nation. Most of their scoring comes in the isolation or dribble drive fashion. Newbill and Frazier are isolation type of players. I think this plays into the strength of Ohio State’s defense. Craft will not leave Frazier’s pocket when he puts the ball on the floor. Ohio State will take their chances with Craft playing man to man defense.

On the flip side, the Buckeyes come in on a bit of a roll; winning 7 of their last 9 games. That’s a far cry from their midseason struggles when they lost 4 in a row from January 7th through the 20th. LaQuinton Ross (14.3 points per game) and Lenzelle Smith Jr. (11.8 points per game) have both picked up their scoring. By doing so, the Buckeyes have been picking up some big wins. Penn State won’t roll over at home, so it’ll be important for Ohio State to hit some shots early on the road. Guys like Ross and Smith need to see the ball go through the basket early on.

Thad Matta has his crew playing well going into March. He knows this team must grind out games defensively, push the pace when the opportunity presents itself and knock down some perimeter shots with no true inside scoring threat. I like Ohio State to edge Penn State slightly, pulling away in the last 2 minutes, 67-60.

Minnesota at Ohio State
Value City Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Feb. 22nd, 2014 at 6:00PM ET (BTN)

The first time these two teams met this season, Minnesota came in unranked with a 13-4 record. Ohio State was 15-2, ranked #11 but had just came off two losses to Michigan State and Iowa.

Minnesota would go on to upset the Buckeyes, handing Ohio State its third loss that was just he beginning of a slide that had people wondering if Ohio State was even a tournament team.

Since that game in January, Ohio State has won six of the next nine games while Minnesota would only find success in three of their next nine (even though one of those wins was a solid victory over Wisconsin). Divergent paths, indeed. Minnesota is now the team in need of another signature win to bolster any kind of tournament resume they can. Ohio State twice in one season would be quite the feather in their cap.

Not much has changed from the preview that Chris K did earlier. Minnesota is still going to rely on Andre and Austin Hollins to lead the way against Aaron Craft and LaQuinton Ross of the Buckeyes.

Look for Ross to have a big game after his ejection in Ohio State’s victory over Northwestern. Thad Matta (and I’m sure Ross as well) wasn’t proud of the outburst and I’m sure has been riding Ross. This is a chance to LaQuinton to show he’s moved on and is able to concentrate on getting his game right.

Game tips off at 6 on Big Ten Network

Northwestern hadn’t beaten Ohio State in the last 8 tries and hadn’t won in Columbus since 1977. It appeared in the early going that they might have a chance, even taking a 9 point lead over the Buckeyes at one point in the first half. Then, of course, Ohio State got going. With Northwestern up 25-16 with a little over 7 minutes left in the first half, Ohio State closed on a 21-8 run to take a 4 point lead at the half. Ohio State outscored Northwestern 39-27 in the second half to beat the Wildcats, now 12-14 and 5-8 in conference play, 76-60. Ohio State improved their record to 21-6 overall and 8-6 in conference play.

LaQuinton Ross lead the Buckeyes in points with 16 to go along with 6 rebounds. Ross also led Ohio State in ejections as he was thrown out for shoving Northwestern’s Nikola Cerina and Drew Crawford. He appeared to be coming to the aid of teammate Amir Williams who was being driven out of bounds by Cerina and was a couple of inches away from being on the business end of Cerina’s punch. While no shove or punch should be viewed as a positive, Ross’ show of emotion for his teammate was something that appeared to be lacking with this team just a few short weeks ago.
As I have written about several times here, this team goes as Lenzelle Smith Jr. goes. And go he did. He had a double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. He will continue to be the steering wheel to Aaron Craft’s engine and Ross’ gas pedal as this team makes to drive towards the Final Four.

Northwestern got an outstanding effort from Drew Crawford as he went for a game high 22 points on 8-13 shooting and appeared to be unguardable at times. Though it does not appear this will be the year Northwestern makes to NCAA tournament, head coach Chris Collins has a couple of pieces to make a run in the next couple of years.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are doing something this Saturday that they haven’t had to do since the beginning of the month. When the Buckeyes(19-6, 6-6) take on the Fighting Illini of Illinois, they will be coming off of a loss. Thad Matta’s club is hoping to rebound from a home loss to rival Michigan on Tuesday. He is also hoping the outcome of the game on Saturday is the same as when Ohio State beat The Fighting Illini(14-11, 3-9) 62-55 at Value City Arena on Jan 23rd.

In order for Ohio State to come out on the winning side of the scoreboard, they will need to contain the Illini’s leading scorer, Rayvonte Rice. He is averaging 16.8 points a game but Ohio State was able to limit the sharpshooter to exactly 0 points. Don’t think for a second that Rice is not fully aware of his shortcomings last time against the Buckeyes. One thing Ohio State will want to keep an eye on is the production of Joseph Bertrand who was able to find a lot of success against the Buckeyes last contest with 19 points. He almost single handedly kept the Illini within striking distance until the final moments.

With Matta’s club seemingly having righted the ship a bit with road wins against Wisconsin and Iowa to go along with a home win against Purdue, the home loss to Michigan might have let doubt creep back in. This teams needs confidence in order to succeed and seem to have gotten it in Lenzelle Smith Jr. With LaQuinton Ross being the one constant that Matta can count on, the rest of the bunch have been as up and down as a roller coaster. Smith Jr. has provided the spark to get the Buckeyes back on track. His performance will most certainly dictate the outcome of the game against Illinois. If he scores in double figures, the Buckeyes will be able to score against Illini and win the game. I look for Illinois to have a hot shooting streak playing at home and coming away with a 70-62 win.

Apparently Ohio St basketball has a better grasp of statistics than logic. If a team goes one for nine in the first half on three point attempts in tonight’s home game against Michigan, logic would suggest “it’s just not your night—lay off the threes.” Apparently the players and coaches avoid what goes on in the Philosophy Department and instead think, “hey, we don’t shoot threes at 10%, right? So we will hit them in bunches.” Early in the second half the math theory gained some currency as the Bucks stretched out a one point lead to seven or eight when they went two of three from past the arc. But alas, they ended the game with about the same ineptitude.

Which was a shame because the Buckeyes had great success in the paint early on and seemed to regain the momentum by going inside again before several killer turnovers and numerous Michigan offensive rebounds decided the game with a 70-60 Michigan win. On a night when the Buckeyes got almost nothing from the bench, La Qiunton Ross (24 points) and Amir Williams (7 points, all a bonus) were making a difference scoring inside and the defense was absolutely outstanding. This was a game the Buckeyes easily could have won had they not gotten so quick to pull the long ball trigger. So the Buckeye winning streak stalls at three and Thad Matta loses for the first time to Michigan at the Schott.

A mere ten days ago, Michigan (17-6, 9-2) sat atop the B1G undefeated and in the AP top 10. Ohio State (19-5, 6-5) was 3-5 in the B1G and completely out of the AP top 25. Now, the roles are reversed, with now No. 15 Michigan having lost 2 of 3 and No. 22 Ohio State on three game wins streak with tough road wins in Madison and Iowa City. If the Buckeyes are going to climb back into the B1G regular season title chase, they cannot afford to drop any games at home, especially against a team they are chasing.

This will be the only regular season matchup for the two teams as Ohio State hosts the Wolverines only three days off a convincing 85-67 loss at Iowa. Michigan had been responding well after losing big man Mitch McGary to back surgery. Strong rebounding and balanced and selfless team play have made up the difference with forward Glenn Robinson and 6’6” guard Caris LaVert adding a double digit boost to leading scorer 6’6” guard Nik Staukas. Stauskas was held in check in the loss to the Hawkeyes, scoring only 9 as he was guarded by Hawkeye Roy Devyn Marble for much of the time.

For the scoring challenged Buckeyes the recipe will be much the same—strong defensive effort to slow down the Michigan running game and holding top scorers in check. At 6’2”, B1G player of the week Aaron Craft could draw much of the defensive assignment against Stauskas. Craft handled the bigger Marble well in the last meeting in Iowa and could also be the answer for much of the time against Stauskas. La Quinton Ross, the Buckeyes leading scorer always has the potential to have a big night, as does Lenzelle Smith, Jr., though those nights have been fairly rare in B1G play. A little offense from the defensively stout Amir Williams is always a plus but it during games like these when that little extra could make all the difference.