INDIANAPOLIS — Here we go again.
Ohio State and Michigan State are set to square off again for what seems like the ninth time this season. It's only No. 3, of course, but Friday will mark the third time in the last three weeks these two teams will share the court.
| WHO | WHERE | WHEN | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State (26-5) | Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, Ind.) | 6:30 p.m. | BTN |
The Spartans won the first two meetings easily. The first was an 81-62 rout in Columbus and the second was a comfortable 91-76 victory in East Lansing. Michigan State has proven it is the better team; Ohio State desperately needs an upset.
The Buckeyes' NCAA tournament hopes hang on it. This is Ohio State's final shot to earn a quality win.
“This a desperation game," Buckeyes redshirt sophomore guard Kam Williams said. "Our backs are against the wall. We need this game very badly and I think we’ll do whatever it takes to win.”
Opponent Breakdown
At this point, there's not much left to say about Michigan State. If you've been watching Ohio State recently, you certainly know how good the Spartans are.
Michigan State closed out its regular season 10-1 with the only loss in that stretch coming at Purdue in overtime way back on Feb. 9. It's safe to say that, per usual, the Spartans are peaking at the right time.
In the last meeting between these two teams, Michigan State put on an offensive display for the ages as the Spartans torched the nets to the tune of 66.7 percent shooting from the floor. Denzel Valentine was brilliant as usual going for 27 points, 13 assists and four rebounds. Bryn Forbes went for 14 points after going for 27 in the first meeting. Matt Costello scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
"They are a great team. You know, they just — they pose so many problems," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said of Michigan State. "But with that said, as I told these guys, we have to play better than we played the first two games.
"If they shoot 68 percent or whatever they shot against us five days ago, we're probably in trouble. So we know the first thing is we're going to have to defend and do a great job doing that andd we're going to have to play harder and we're going to have to play smarter."
Buckeye Breakdown
Ohio State got superstar-like performances from JaQuan Lyle and Marc Loving in its 79-75 victory over Penn State on Thursday to open Big Ten tournament play. The Buckeyes will need that, plus more to have any shot at upsetting the Spartans.
Loving scored a team-high 24 points in that win over the Nittany Lions and has been playing much better since Jae'Sean Tate went down with a season-ending injury. Lyle became just the fourth player in Big Ten tournament history to go for at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in his standout performance against Penn State.
But Ohio State needs to focus on the defensive end of the floor against the Spartans as the Buckeyes have struggled to guard the nation's most efficient offense.
"We’ve got to shut down their top players obviously with Valentine, Forbes, [Eron] Harris," Williams said. "We’ve got to dial in on them and we’ve got to key on getting 50-50 balls, the little things. I think if we put 40 minutes of good basketball together I think we’ve got a good chance.”
Added Buckeyes freshman center Daniel Giddens: “We have to bring the intensity and the aggressiveness like we had versus Kentucky and Michigan. We have to bring that [Friday] to get a win. They have one of the best players in college basketball in Denzel Valentine so we have to do our work against him Forbes and Costello. That’s really their Big 3. Do our work against those three and hopefully we can get the win.”
How It Plays Out
Ohio State is saying all of the right things when it comes to Michigan State, but that doesn't assure anything when the Buckeyes take the floor. They feel like they can compete — of course they're saying they can — and Ohio State is well-aware of the implications of this game.
With that said, at the end of the day, the Spartans are just a superior basketball team. This was a really tough draw for Ohio State to make a run and it just feels like the Buckeyes ran into the wrong team at the wrong time.
I think this game may be closer than the previous two, but in the end there's just too much Valentine and Forbes for Ohio State to handle.
Tim's prediction: Michigan State 80, Ohio State 71
