A quick pit stop in between the first two Big Ten games of the year, Ohio State will be looking to build upon the momentum it’s built up as of late on Wednesday night against Towson.
| WHO | WHERE | WHEN | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Towson (6-3) | Schottenstein Center | 9 p.m. | ESPNU |
Ohio State returned to the AP Top 25 on Monday, climbing from unranked to No. 21 after wins over Duke and Penn State, and the Buckeyes are favored to equal their season-high win streak with a third straight on Wednesday.
But Towson and 11-year head coach Pat Skerry have already won more games during their 6-3 start to the 2021-22 campaign than they did all of last season, and the Tigers are just two days removed from beating a different Ohio basketball program on its home court. The Buckeyes are not Kent State, though, and Ohio State figures to be the toughest competition Towson has played by a considerable margin through the first month of the season.
With 22nd-ranked Wisconsin coming to Columbus on Saturday and a trip to Las Vegas to play No. 11 Kentucky looming next weekend, Ohio State must not get caught looking ahead when it tips off against Towson at 9 p.m. Wednesday night in the Schottenstein Center.
“First off, Towson’s a really good team. Although they’re not ranked, they’re a really good team and all the metrics say they’re a really good team,” Ohio State assistant coach Jake Diebler said Tuesday. “In college basketball, this season seems like more than typical seasons, we’re reminded multiple times a week that you can’t take anybody lightly.
“Every single team is capable of beating you on any given night, and you gotta bring your best stuff and you gotta find a way to execute and be about the details and all those things, regardless of who you’re playing.”
Three Things To Watch For
Potential for sluggish Buckeye start
Sandwiched in between the first two Big Ten games of the season is this late night tip-off for a non-conference tilt against Towson from the Colonial Athletic Association. It is far from a sexy matchup on paper, but the Buckeyes could be at risk of an off night if they can’t get properly motivated for this one. With the way Ohio State’s been playing recently, Towson has no business being in this one by the end, but this game has the makings of a potential sluggish start for the Buckeyes.
Towson leans on guard play
For the second straight game, Ohio State will have the luxury of playing a team that won’t have a size advantage. Towson’s top-five scorers are all guards listed at 6-foot-5 and under, and even though the Buckeyes have given up huge scoring nights to several opposing guards so far this season, the Tigers should not have the ability to bully the Buckeyes inside or on the glass. The tallest player on the entire Towson roster is just 6-foot-9, and the tallest player averaging more than five points a game for the Tigers is just 6-foot-7.
Getting to the free throw line
If there’s one thing the Tigers do particularly well on offense, relative to the rest of the Division I teams across the country, it’s getting to the free throw line. With an average of 22 attempts per game, Towson ranks in the top 40 in the nation, and even with a ho-hum 69 percent average from the charity stripe, the Tigers’ average of 15.2 makes per game is still good for 55th in the country. Seton Hall is the only team Ohio State has faced all season that gets to the line more than Towson, and foul trouble has been an issue in several games already this year for the Buckeyes.
Three Important Buckeyes
Kyle Young
When Kyle Young scored 18 points in the first half against Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament last season, hitting four 3-pointers in the process, it seemed to be a potential breakthrough moment for Young’s offensive capabilities moving forward. Young was knocked out of the rest of the season with a concussion in the second half, and the Buckeyes never got to see their veteran forward build on that performance. But with a season-high 16-point effort against Penn State on Sunday, including a 4-for-4 night from beyond the arc, Young might be hitting his stride in his new role as a spark off the bench for the Buckeyes.
“We expect him to do that,” Diebler said. “Now obviously 4-for-4 is great, I don’t know if it’s fair to put that on anybody game in and game out, but expect him to make shots, and I think it opens up the floor for us offensively in ways that we might not have when he’s not on the court.”
Jamari Wheeler
It was clear Jamari Wheeler felt he had something to prove against his former team on Sunday. Wheeler played with an offensive aggression we have seldom seen from the former Nittany Lion, tying his season-high with nine points and dishing a Buckeye-best nine assists as well in Ohio State’s 76-64 win over Penn State. If Wheeler can replicate that intensity on nights when he doesn’t have the added motivation of playing his former teammates, it will add a new dimension to the Buckeye offense.
Malaki Branham
The true freshman guard put up a career-high 11 points against Penn State. After a tough shooting stretch to start the season, Malaki Branham appears to have found his stroke as of late. Branham has hit 9-of-15 shots in the past two games, in which he has combined to score 19 points, and the lift he’s given the Buckeyes in those wins has been tangible.
Three Important Tigers
| Player | Position | Height | Weight | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAHDIR HICKS | G | 6-0 | 160 | 2.7 PPG, 2.1 RPG |
| TERRY NOLAN JR. | G | 6-4 | 190 | 12.9 PPG, 3.4 APG |
| CAMERON HOLDEN | G | 6-5 | 200 | 16 PPG, 10.4 RPG |
| NICOLAS TIMBERLAKE | G | 6-4 | 200 | 13.6 PPG, 5.2 RPG |
| CHARLES THOMPSON | F | 6-7 | 235 | 6.3 PPG, 4.2 RPG |
Cameron Holden
After stops at UT Martin and Gulf Coast State College, 6-foot-5 guard Cameron Holden has already taken over as the leading scorer and rebounder for the Tigers in just his first nine games with the program. Holden’s averaging 16 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, and his 3.3 assists are second-best on the team as well. Just as impressive is that Holden is shooting better than 51 percent from the field and nearly 42 percent from 3-point range, and he’s already had three games with at least 20 points this season.
Nicolas Timberlake
A four-year Towson veteran, Nicolas Timberlake is having the best season of his career so far with averages of 13.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. A 6-foot-4 guard, Timberlake was the conference’s sixth man of the year two seasons ago but now starts and plays the second-most minutes on the team behind Holden. If there’s a knock on Timberlake, it may be that he shoots the ball under a 40 percent clip, which isn't an aberration when you take a look at his career stats.
Terry Nolan Jr.
Towson’s third-leading scorer, Terry Nolan Jr. is averaging a hair under 13 points per game this season and is dishing out a team-high 3.4 assists. Another 6-foot-4 guard, this is Nolan’s first year with the Tigers after previous stops at George Washington and Bradley, but as a fifth-year player, he’s putting up some of the best numbers of his collegiate tenure. Like Timberlake, Nolan’s shooting percentage is not overly impressive this season, as he’s hitting just 38.7 percent of his shots.
How It Plays Out
Line: Ohio State -15.5, O/U: 137.5
The Buckeyes have a distinct size advantage for a change, and even without it, the talent gap is far too wide for this game to be close if Ohio State continues to play like one of the better teams in the country.
Prediction: Ohio State 85, Towson 67
