Buford, scoring 15.7 over his last 16 games.
 #18 Ohio State
17-6, 7-3 Big Ten
Roster | Schedule
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February 7, 2009 12:00 PM ET - BTN —— The Schott Columbus, OH |
 Iowa
8-14, 2-7 Big Ten
Roster | Schedule
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Ohio State looks to extend their conference winning streak to seven, as they welcome in the Hawkeyes, losers of three straight, including a 65-57 defeat against the Bucks 11 days ago.
Last Sunday, the Bucks gave a spirited effort in front of the 1960 team, but played flat Wednesday against Penn State and the first meeting with Iowa was extremely boring. This week they welcome back former captains, so we can only hope the Saturday banquet and the possible pre-game speech by the likes of Clark Kellog, Ronnie Stokes or Matt Sylvester creates the same energy for this game.
| # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST | POS | # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Evan Turner | 18.9 | 9.5 | 5.7 | G | 3 | Cully Payne | 8.0 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 33 | Jon Diebler | 12.9 | 2.9 | 1.7 | G | 5 | Matt Gatens | 12.1 | 4.4 | 3.5 |
| 44 | William Buford | 14.2 | 5.0 | 3.3 | F | 24 | Aaron Fuller | 8.1 | 5.4 | 1.5 |
| 23 | David Lighty | 12.9 | 4.7 | 2.8 | F | 25 | Eric May | 9.1 | 5.2 | 1.5 |
| 52 | Dallas Lauderdale | 7.3 | 5.2 | 0.3 | C | 50 | Jarryd Cole | 8.2 | 5.3 | 0.4 |
Opponent
Ohio State clearly has the better talent, as the Hawkeyes resemble a typical high school team from rural America and not a Big Ten squad. But the Hawks always seem to play well in Cbus and OSU has a tendency to lose a three point shooter. Iowa used an effective high pick and roll, with some timely 3-point shooting to keep the game close in Iowa City. The pick and roll forced Thad to switch to zone late in the game, so don't be surprised to see Dallas doing his best to defend 23 feet from the hoop.
Iowa is the lowest scoring team (56.5) and worst shooting team (38.1) in conference play. Their 2 wins came against Penn State and Indiana, while losing their others by an average of 11 points a game. Even though they have launched the 3rd most 3-point attempts in league play (239), Iowa is hitting just 29 percent and connected on 10 of 31 in the first meeting.
The Hawks will primarily run with 7 guys, lead by Devan Bawinkel, who hit 13 of 21 bombs attempts against the Bucks last year and has yet to take a 2-pointer this year in 66 shots. Offensive Lineman wanna-be, Brennan Cougill will also get about 17-19 minutes and scores almost 5 a game.
Buckeye Breakdown:
William Buford has averaged almost 20 points a game over his last 4, while also grabbing 19 rebounds and dishing out 16 assists. He has moved up to 11th in conference scoring, but Buford will be looking for redemption against Iowa today, as he scored 11 points on 4 of 14 shooting in Iowa City. Buford has also been impressive on the glass, snagging 6.9 a game in conference play, ranking him 8th.
David Lighty helped save the game in the first meeting, scoring 18 of his 20 in the second half. He has since scored double digits in the last 3, on 16 of 29 shooting, including 7 of 12 from deep. D-Light has sat just 1 minute in the last 4 games and his 4 bombs against PSU was a season high.
With Michigan State's loss on Saturday, the Buckeyes find themselves 1 game out of first place, with a run against Illinois, Purdue and MSU starting next Sunday. With an early start time and sure to be half empty arena, this game may take a while to get going, but I fully expect the Buckeyes to come out on top. Iowa doesn't have anyone that can stop Turner or Buford and I have a feeling they will combine for 50 today. If that happens and the Bucks can keep their rebounding prowless up, they should win pulling away, 74-58.
Etc
- The game is part of Military Appreciation Week at Ohio State.
- Tom Hamilton and Greg Kessler will call the game.
- Matta is 118-20 versus unranked opponents at OSU.
