Diebler went for 25 and 13 last week.
(AP: Paul Vernon)
 #18 Ohio State
16-6, 6-3 Big Ten
Roster | Schedule
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February 3, 2009 6:30 PM ET - BTN —— The Schott Columbus, OH |
 Penn State
8-13, 0-9 Big Ten
Roster | Schedule
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We'll keep this one short and sweet today, as the workday topic du jour will be the 2010 football recruiting class and not the 0-9 Nittany Lions coming to town Wednesday night.
The Buckeyes are looking for their 6th straight conference win and to keep pace with Wisconsin, who blew out Michigan State at home on Tuesday.
To offset the level of competition, the University will honor the Big Ten and Rose Bowl Champion football team at halftime. Hopefully the gridiron squad has as much influence on the hoopsters as the 1960 squad did on Sunday.
| # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST | POS | # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Evan Turner | 18.4 | 9.5 | 5.7 | G | 12 | Talor Battle | 18.8 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 33 | Jon Diebler | 13.3 | 3.0 | 1.8 | G | 15 | David Jackson | 8.6 | 4.5 | 1.2 |
| 44 | William Buford | 14.0 | 5.1 | 3.2 | F | 11 | Bill Edwards | 5.7 | 4.4 | 1.5 |
| 23 | David Lighty | 12.9 | 4.7 | 2.9 | F | 10 | Chris Babb | 8.2 | 3.7 | 2.0 |
| 52 | Dallas Lauderdale | 7.4 | 5.1 | 0.3 | C | 54 | Andrew Ott | 4.0 | 2.3 | 0.2 |
Opponent
Penn State comes in scoring 59.2 points a game in conference play, on 41 percent shooting overall and 30.9 from deep. On defense, they give up 68 points on 46 percent overall and 38.3 from 3-land. As expected, all those numbers rank towards the bottom of the Big Ten. On the plus side, PSU has done a decent job of cleaning the glass in league play, ranking second in rebounding margin at +3.8.
Coach Ed DeChellis will rotate 9-10 guys in, but he primarily uses 8 players, all of which have starting experience this season. Jeff Brooks, Andrew Jones III and Tim Frazier will lead the way off the bench, each logging about 17-18 minutes of play. Brooks is PSU's fourth leading scorer at 7 points, Jones is second with 4.9 boards and Frazier is second with 2.5 dimes per contest.
Buckeye Breakdown:
OSU shouldn't have any problems with Penn State tonight, unless they have some type of emotional let down from this past weekend's festivities. The Buckeyes remain undefeated at home and are shooting a ridiculous 53.8 percent from the floor at VCA. They have beaten their B10 foes by 25, 9, 20 and 22, while having an overall winning margin of +27.9 at home.
The offense has been flowing well lately, with everyone picking up their scoring act. It seems Thad is content going with 5 guys the majority of the time and will only use his subs when he is forced to. According to Bob Baptist, after the Buckeyes were outrebounded at Wisconsin by 9, they have won the board battle by an average of +4.25 per contest in conference play. As the season has worn on, rebounding has become more of a team effort, which is evident in the fact that Buford, Diebler and Lighty all had at least 12 caroms last week in the 2 games.
The Lions have played some close games within the conference, losing in OT at Whisky and by a single point at Illinois. However, after Sunday's home performance against Minnesota, I expect much of the same and the only question could be how many minutes the bench gets and if they can show more productivity in that time. Ohio State wins going away, 76-61.
Etc
- Ohio State has won 11 straight over PSU.
- The Buckeyes have won 74 of their last 75 home games against unranked opponents.
