Ohio State does not want to be Rutgers' first Big Ten victim in over a calendar year. The Buckeyes will attempt to avoid that Saturday when they travel to Piscataway, New Jersey for a date with the Scarlet Knights.
| WHO | WHERE | WHEN | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rutgers (6-18, 0-11) | Rutgers Athletic Center (Piscataway, N.J.) | 4 p.m. | BTN |
It's an important game for Ohio State — they all are now — as it tries to build some momentum following a come-from-behind victory over Northwestern on Tuesday. The Buckeyes are right in the middle of the Big Ten standings and hope to keep pace as the regular-season winds down.
"Continue what we did mostly in the second half of the Northwestern game and carry that over," Ohio State sophomore Keita Bates-Diop said Friday. "Basically, just don’t get in any bad habits.”
Opponent Breakdown
Where do we begin?
The Scarlet Knights are currently 0-11 in the Big Ten and just 6-18 overall. They haven't won a game since Dec. 28 and have lost 25-straight Big Ten regular-season games dating back to Jan. 11, 2015.
Rutgers is probably the worst team in the league — though Minnesota is also 0-11 in the Big Ten — but it does have a dynamic freshman guard and it also was leading Ohio State at halftime of the first meeting between the two teams.
Corey Sanders is averaging nearly 16 points per game for the Scarlet Knights — ninth in the Big Ten — and scored 20 against Ohio State in the first game. Rutgers led that one at halftime, 41-39, before the Buckeyes turned it on in the second half en route to a 94-68 win.
The Scarlet Knights rank 282nd in KenPom's advanced statistical ratings out of 351 Division I teams. They are 13th in the Big Ten in scoring offense (68.3 points per game) and last in the league in scoring defense (80.0 points per game). Rutgers' 11 Big Ten losses have come by an average of 23.3 points.
Still, Ohio State head coach Thad Matta and Co. say they are not taking the Scarlet Knights lightly.
"I still feel this way about Rutgers: They have the ability to go on runs that is quite amazing," Matta said. "Looking now where they were they’re executing at a high level, they play a little bit different at home, but we were not very good in the first half in that game just from the energy standpoint, the concentration standpoint, the finishing, all those things and we did a much better job in the second half.”
Buckeye Breakdown
After back-to-back losses, Ohio State had a pretty underwhelming performance in the first half of Tuesday's win over Northwestern before really turning things up in the second half. The Buckeyes outscored the Wildcats by 15 points over the game's final 20 minutes on their way to a 71-63 victory.
Ohio State put all five starters in double-figures, led by JaQuan Lyle's 16 points. Lyle has played much better in the previous two games and the last time he faced Rutgers, Lyle produced just the fifth triple-double in school history with a 16-point, 12-rebound, 11-assist effort.
“That game, a lot of guys made shots and they allowed me to get some of the rebounds; I don’t know if they’re gonna be that kind this game," Lyle joked Friday. "But it’s just finding my teammates, making plays for them and making plays for myself.”
The Buckeyes are in the midst of a four-game stretch where they can't afford a loss before ending the regular-season with three huge games against Michigan State, Iowa and Michigan State again.
"You look at the Big Ten standings and there’s so much could happen over the next couple weeks that the focus is we’ve got to — who cares what else is going on, we’ve got to take care of ourselves," Matta said. "That’s kind of been our message: We don’t feel like we’ve played consistently our best basketball yet and that’s what I’m after with them.”
How It Plays Out
Any road game in the Big Ten is difficult, but Rutgers may be the exception to that rule. The Scarlet Knights are a really, really bad basketball team.
It's safe to say a loss here would be catastrophic for Ohio State, but that's hard to imagine happening. This game might be close in the first half as the Buckeyes have a tendency to start slow on the road, but Ohio State should win comfortably.
Tim's prediction: Ohio State 74, Rutgers 59
