For the first time in more than a month, Ohio State is looking to rebound from a loss.
The Buckeyes have lost two games in a row just once this season, when they dropped back-to-back games against Butler and Clemson in late November. Since, Chris Holtmann's squad has won 13 of its last 15 games, with the most recent loss coming on a buzzer beater from Penn State's Tony Carr.
| Who | Where | When | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indiana (12-10, 5-5) | Value City Arena | 7 p.m. | ESPN2 |
Ohio State's first opponent following the heartbreaking loss is Indiana, a team that is coming off a loss to No. 3 Purdue, a game in which the Hoosiers led at halftime.
Holtmann said while Indiana's performance against the Boilermakers was impressive, Ohio State didn't need any extra motivation to play the Hoosiers, a team that defeated the Buckeyes 96-92 in last season's regular season finale.
"I think that our guys have a great deal of respect for Indiana, partly because it's Indiana, a traditional power," Holtmann said Monday. "The fact that they came in here last year and beat us. I am anxious to see how we come back. We have only had one practice because of the days off. I think we practiced well, but I am anxious to see how we respond competitively today in practice and tomorrow at tip."
Opponent Breakdown
The Hoosiers, much like the Buckeyes, are led by a first-year coach in Archie Miller, a former Ohio State assistant that was clamored over by a number of fans who saw him as the replacement for Thad Matta in Columbus.
Ultimately, Indiana fired Tom Crean before the Buckeyes moved on from Matta and Miller ended up in Bloomington, Ind., where his Hoosiers got off to a rocky start.
The Hoosiers dropped two of their first three games of the 2017-18 campaign, including their season opener to Indiana State, 90-69 at home in Assembly Hall. After falling to a top-25 program in Seton Hall on Nov. 15, Indiana rattled off three straight wins before dropping a 10-point contest to No. 1 Duke on Nov. 29, a game the Hoosiers led by four in the second half.
| Player | Pos | HT | WT | Min | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JUWAN MORGAN | F | 6-8 | 230 | 28.2 | 16.3 | 7.1 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.4 |
| ROBERT JOHNSON | G | 6-3 | 195 | 33.6 | 14.0 | 4.6 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 0.2 |
| JOSH NEWKIRK | G | 6-1 | 195 | 24.4 | 8.1 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| JUSTIN SMITH | F | 6-7 | 220 | 13.3 | 5.5 | 2.9 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| ZACH MCROBERTS | G | 6-6 | 205 | 20.2 | 2.8 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 0.2 |
Since an embarrassing 20-point home loss to Fort Wayne on Dec. 18, Indiana has had its share of ups and downs.
Indiana opened the New Year with a 10-point loss to Wisconsin, before rattling off three straight wins over Minnesota, Penn State and Northwestern, dismantling the Wildcats by 20 at home. Since then however, the Hoosiers have lost three of their last four, while also losing starting forward De'Ron Davis for the season with an achilles injury. Davis averaged 9.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in 15 starts prior to his injury suffered in a non-contact drill in practice.
The Hoosiers have been led all season in both points and on the boards by junior forward Juwan Morgan, a player Holtmann has seen before as the head coach at Butler. Last season, Holtmann's Bulldogs defeated Indiana, 83-78, a game in which Morgan led all players with 10 rebounds. Holtmann said Monday that after watching film, he has been impressed with Indiana's defense, but also the individual play of Morgan, who is coming off of a 24-point showing in a 74-67 loss to Purdue on Sunday.
"They're defending as well as anybody in the league right now. Morgan is a load. Morgan is a legit, first-team All-League kind of a guy," Holtmann said. "(Robert) Johnson and (Josh) Newkirk (are) big strong, older guards that we had a real hard time with here last year."
Johnson and Newkirk combined for 44 points against Ohio State last season, shooting a blistering 16-for-27 from the floor, including 7-of-11 from behind the arc in the win over the Buckeyes.
This season has not brought the same success for the Hoosiers behind the three-point line, however, as Miller's squad is connecting on just 30.5 percent of its shots from long distance, ranking them second-last in the Big Ten ahead of only Rutgers.
Buckeye Breakdown
Ohio State's loss to Penn State saw the Buckeyes allow one the best three-point shooting performance in school history on Thursday, as the Nittany Lions connected on 11-of-13 shots from distance, something that was an immediate concern of Holtmann's after the loss.
After getting a chance to dissect the film, Holtmann said that Penn State's success from long range came from a mixture of both poor defense but also superb shot-making from the Nittany Lions.
Other areas of concern for Ohio State coming out of the Penn State loss were lack of offensive production from the bench, which has scored just eight combined points in the Buckeyes' last two games. Holtmann said that he isn't overly concerned with the offensive struggles of the players off the bench because of the defensive lift players like Andrew Dakich, Musa Jallow and Andre Wesson have provided.
"I'm not sure (scoring) is the strength of anybody coming off the bench right now. To force-feed them might not be in our team's best interest," Holtmann said. "I think they have got to play and recognize the opportunities that are there and find ways to contribute. What I have to do a good job of is making sure we don't have all of them in together, or a bulk of them in together because offensively, we can be somewhat limited if we have four bench guys in at a time.
"Having said that, we do get some stuff defensively from that group and sometimes that gets forgotten about," Holtmann continued. "We have gotten some things from Andre and Musa and Andrew defensively that have been really helpful for us."
Against Penn State, Ohio State was forced to play a brief stretch without either Keita Bates-Diop or Jae'Sean Tate on the floor, at which point the Nittany Lions took their largest lead of the game against the Buckeyes. With two of its three leading scorers on the bench, OSU relied heavily on point guard C.J. Jackson to create offense off the dribble.
Still ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 following the tough loss, Holtmann said his team will need to embrace the target on its back if it is to right the ship and get back into the win column as the conference season rolls on.
"If we are not prepared for people's best shot, then that's on us, and me, because that is coming," Holtmann said. "No one at the beginning of the year thought this would be an important game for anybody for any type of postseason. It is now. Are we going to be good enough and sound enough to handle that? We'll see. It's clear we are going to get people's best shot."
How It Plays Out
The Buckeyes finally got the extended break that they needed after playing five games in less than two weeks. Conversely, the Hoosiers are in the middle of a similar stretch, having taken on Purdue on Sunday afternoon.
Ohio State enters the game ranked No. 17 in the country and No. 14 in Ken Pomeroy's advanced statistical rating system, while Indiana sits at No. 88 in the same rankings.
With fresh legs and an increased awareness of recent slow starts, expect the Buckeyes to come out with a renewed energy and get back into the win column Tuesday night.
Prediction: Ohio State 80, Indiana 69
