B1G and Purdue Preview

B1G Preview for the Ohio State Buckeyes’ basketball team

OSU LogoCurrently, the B1G has three teams in the Top 5 in the country in Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State at 3, 4 and 5 respectively. Despite those three schools being the only three schools ranked in the current AP Top 25 poll, there is still strong consensus that the B1G is the deepest and toughest conference in college basketball. Though CBSSports’ Jerry Palm has the B1G as the second best conference, behind the Big 12, in his conference rankings systems, the B1G has the best win percentage among all major conferences. With conference play getting under way for all schools in the coming days, it is sure to be a heated race for the title. Look for a team with no less than four losses to take the crown as the schedule for each school is brutal. Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State are the favorites but a resurgent Iowa squad, along with Illinois and Michigan look to contend as well. With Minnesota sporting a new coach in Richard Pitino, Jr. and Northwestern installing Chris Collins as their coach, the B1G adds to their coaching lineage with both coaches coming from much respected coaching trees. Penn State is returning All-B1G player in Tim Frazier after missing most of last season with injuries.

Ohio State vs. Purdue Preview

As the 2013-14 non-conference schedule came to an end on Friday night with a 71-31 thrashing of Louisiana Monroe, Ohio State capped off a rare, perfect non- conference schedule. The Buckeyes take their spotless 13-0 record into Mackey arena today to take on the Purdue Boilermakers as the start of B1G begins for both schools. Purdue, picked to finish 6th in the B1G by ESPN, boasts a 10-3 record so far on the year and coming off their most impressive non-conference win, a 73-70 win at West Virginia, are looking to keep their perfect record at home intact.

The Boilermakers are led in scoring by Terrone Johnson at 14.0 points a game, followed by Ronnie Johnson at 10.8 per game. In all, Purdue has ten players averaging 4.5 points or high per game while the team is averaging 78.4 points per game. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes are third in the nation in both scoring defense and field goal percentage defense at 54.0 and 36.4% respectively. They are also tops in the nation in 3-point fg defense at 24.3%. This should be where the game is decided. If the Buckeyes can continue their trend of stifling defense, it’ll be tough for Purdue to overcome. However, Purdue’s balance could pose serious problems for the Buckeye defense as it makes all of the Buckeye defenders responsible for a scoring threat.

Add in the home field advantage for Purdue and you have the recipe for a close, 68-63 Buckeye win

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