Basketball Preview: Ohio State Trying To Extend Win Streak To Four With Purdue Coming To Town

Ten days ago, Ohio State secured its first-top-25 road Big Ten win in nearly three years when it went to Piscataway and upset then-No. 15 Rutgers. Four days later, it held off a late charge from Northwestern to secure a 10-point victory that led head coach Chris Holtmann to say it was the “most proud” he’d been of his team all season. About 72 hours passed before the Buckeyes headed to Champaign, Illinois, and knocked off then-No. 14 Illinois by six points.

Three games, three big wins.

Purdue, Ohio State’s next opponent, knows a little about that life. Matt Painter’s Boilermakers will enter their 6:30 p.m Tuesday night matchup with the No. 15 Buckeyes at the Schottenstein Center also coming off of three consecutive victories that have propelled them to two games over .500 in the Big Ten.

Over the past two weeks, Purdue took down both Michigan State and Indiana on the road then beat Penn State at home on Sunday. Naturally, as somebody never shy about heaping praise upon upcoming opponents, Holtmann considers himself impressed with Painter’s team’s recent stretch of play.

“In Purdue, you have certainly one of the hottest teams in the country given what they've done,” Holtmann said on Monday. “Their last couple of road wins have been extremely impressive, so they're obviously playing really, really well now.”

Both the Buckeyes and Boilermakers are now 5-3 within the conference with multiple road wins. Of course, Purdue got the better of their prior showdown a month ago in West Lafayette, Indiana, with a 67-60 victory. This time, Ohio State wants revenge.

“I think we've gotten better with each passing week, even in spite of these injuries here, but they've also gotten better,” Holtmann said. “Again, they're playing exceptional right now.”

Three Things To Watch

The Physical Battle In The Paint

One particular aspect of Purdue holds a great deal of Holtmann’s attention.

“I've always felt like they're a really physical team,” Holtmann said. “I just think this team, in particular, this Purdue team is one of the most physical teams we've played against.”

Trevion Williams, a 6-foot-10, 265-pound load in the middle of Purdue’s frontcourt, embodies his team’s physicality. The junior big man leads Purdue in both scoring (15.3 points per game) and on the glass (9.7 points per game), and he's coming off back-to-back double-doubles that led to a co-Big Ten Player of the Week selection.

Ten games in a row, he has scored in double figures, and he's reached the 20-point mark three times in the past five games. A month ago, Williams neared a triple-double against Ohio State, recording 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in his team’s seven-point victory.

Naturally, the triumvirate of E.J. Liddell, Kyle Young and Zed Key keeping him contained is among the keys for a Buckeye victory.

“Hopefully we play him better than what we did last time,” Holtmann said. “Give him credit. He made some tough shots. He also made a lot of plays for others, which is what he does.”

Along with Williams, Purdue turns to 7-foot-4 freshman center Zach Edey – who has cooled off after his inferno of a start to his career – and 6-foot-9 junior Aaron Wheeler for production from its frontcourt. Nobody’s production has come close to reaching Williams’ level, though.

Can The New Backcourt Avoid Turnovers?

So much went right in Saturday’s 87-81 win at Illinois that one of the few negatives got glossed over.

Ohio State set a single-game high with a turnover rate of 19.8 percent, slightly edging out the prior high of 19.5 percent set earlier in the year in the loss to...Purdue. A not-to-positive sign: Justice Sueing, who’ll likely play point forward again, committed five turnovers in both of those games.

“He's went from being not a primary ball-handler to forced into a point guard role. I give him a lot of credit. He's had to play through some mistakes, but he's gotten better,” Holtmann said. “Tomorrow will be a huge test with how physical they are, and they affected him in Game 1 with just their on-ball physicality. They bumped him off a lot of cuts and just made it very difficult for him, and that'll be the same thing tomorrow night. We just have to handle it better.”

Sueing has effectively been the Buckeyes’ primary ball-handler each of the past two games due to injuries to CJ Walker and Jimmy Sotos. He’s had his ups and down, which were to be expected considering before last week he’d never played that role. Now in potentially his third game with the ball in his hands a bunch, Ohio State needs Sueing to avoid giving it up as often.

Walker’s torn ligaments in his hand will get reevaluated on Tuesday, so he’ll remain out of action, and Sotos remains a day-by-day decision.

Purdue will counter Ohio State’s backcourt with a slew of guards, including Sasha Stefanovic, who's averaging 10.8 points and hitting 47.1 percent of his 3s, and Eric Hunter Jr., who's managing 10.7 points and 3.6 assists per game. Freshman Brandon Newman has come on as of late, too, scoring double-figures in five of his past seven games.

The Difference A Healthy Liddell Makes

There’s one big difference between Tuesday’s game and the last time Ohio State and Purdue faced each other…

E.J. Liddell.

In Ohio State’s 67-60 loss to the Boilermakers during which Williams came one rebound and two assists short of a triple-double, Liddell had to watch from home. Dealing with mononucleosis, he was out of action that day. Now, he’ll get his shot against Purdue coming off of a career-high 26-point performance in the win at Illinois. More so than his contributions on offense, though, his head coach wants him to be ready for the physicality in the interior on defense.

“He's going to need to have his best defensive game in this game,” Holtmann said. “I think I could say that about all of our post guys. They're going to need to have their best defensive game of the year.”

Prediction: Ohio State 75, Purdue 67