Not that it ever looked like a walk in the park, but Ohio State’s trip to Ann Arbor got a whole lot more daunting on Thursday night.
After underperforming for much of the year, Michigan appeared to put it all together against Purdue, putting a beating on the third-ranked Boilermakers to the tune of an 82-58 win. The next opponent to enter the Crisler Center after that performance will be the 16th-ranked Buckeyes, who have suffered defeats to Rutgers and Purdue in their past three games and have struggled on the road for most of the season so far.
| WHO | WHERE | WHEN | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan (13-9, 7-5 B1G) | Crisler Center | 6 p.m. | ESPN |
With Hunter Dickinson leading the way for the Wolverines, Michigan will try to avenge last season’s last-second Big Ten Tournament loss to the Buckeyes while knocking off a second straight ranked opponent in the process. Ranked as high as fourth in the country back in November, Michigan has suffered upset defeats to Seton Hall, Central Florida and Minnesota among others this season, but finally displayed its full potential in the Purdue game just two days ago.
"I think probably they would say they're playing as well as they've played all year. ... I think all of us who watched them and saw some of their struggles here early on knew that they certainly have the potential to get it rolling," Chris Holtmann said Friday. "They're gifted, they're talented, Juwan (Howard) does a really good job. I think it's a really good team, there's a reason why they were top five or top six in the country in the preseason."
Ohio State will hope to prove that performance to be an aberration as it tries to avoid being beaten in back-to-back games for the first time all season on Saturday, but beating Howard’s Wolverines will be no easy task.
What To Watch For
How Ohio State defends Dickinson
Michigan’s 7-foot-1 star will attract a whole lot of attention from the Ohio State defense, and given how Dickinson fared against the Buckeyes last season, he better. Dickinson averaged 21.5 points per game against the scarlet and gray in two matchups a year ago, and Ohio State has suffered inside against some of the elite big men in the Big Ten already this season. Zach Edey scored 21 against the Buckeyes on Jan. 30 and Trayce Jackson-Davis had 27 in Indiana’s Jan. 6 meeting with Ohio State. Expect to see several bodies thrown at Dickinson in this one, and likely more than one at once.
"Bottom line is we've gotta be better defensively," Holtmann said. "That's what has really gotten us in certain games. It has not been anything other than the fact that we've not been able to get stops when we needed to."
Will momentum be a factor?
Michigan may still be having an underwhelming season by its own standards, but there’s no denying the Wolverines will be riding high off the best performance of their season when the ball gets tipped Saturday. Not only did Michigan knock off the No. 3 team in the country, it ran Purdue straight out of the gym, boat-racing the Boilermakers by 24 points.
That same Purdue team had a 20-point lead on Ohio State in the second half before nearly coughing it up just a couple weeks ago, and the Buckeyes are not exactly at a high point of their own season at the moment. With two losses in three games and four Big Ten road losses in the last five, Ohio State must make sure that momentum doesn’t play a factor in this one.
Buckeye bench output
With eight points against Rutgers, Ohio State’s bench simply did not give the Buckeyes enough in the losing effort. Kyle Young, Justin Ahrens and Cedric Russell were the only Buckeyes to score off the bench, but none of them had more than three points on the night. Especially on the road, where Ohio State is 3-5 on the year, the Buckeyes must not get too reliant on the offense of E.J. Liddell and Malaki Branham, and significant bench contributions will be imperative to that end.
Three Important Buckeyes
E.J. Liddell
The Buckeyes have received plenty of criticism for how things ended in Piscataway on Wednesday, but one head-scratcher in particular is why E.J. Liddell didn’t take any shots down the stretch while Rutgers roared back from down eight to beat Ohio State in the final four minutes. Perhaps Liddell, whose 16 points were his fewest since Jan. 18, will try to ensure he has no such elongated absence against the Wolverines, and especially in a game against a fellow top-flight Big Ten talent in Dickinson.
Zed Key
The last time Key dealt with a difficult defensive assignment guarding one of the conference’s elite 7-foot centers, it didn’t go so well. Against 7-foot-4 Zach Edey on Jan. 30, Key got into foul trouble so quickly that he could hardly stay on the floor against Purdue, and he had little impact on the contest when he was in. Key finished with just one point and one rebound in that game, and it’s safe to say he needs to put forth a better performance when grappling with Dickinson down low in this one.
Kyle Young
Offensive contributions have been few and far between from the Buckeye captain in the past three games. Once averaging double-digit points for Ohio State, Kyle Young is putting up just 4.7 points on 28.6 percent shooting in his last three appearances, and his two-point performance against Rutgers was his lowest scoring output of the season. Young shot just 1-for-5 in that game, 2-for-6 the game before that and 3-for-10 in the one prior. Bench contributions have to amount to more for the Buckeyes, and Young will be critical in that pursuit.
Three Important Wolverines
| Player | Position | Height | Weight | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEVANTE' JONES | G | 6-1 | 200 | 9.3 PPG, 4.2 APG |
| ELI BROOKS | G | 6-1 | 185 | 12.1 PPG, 3.5 RPG |
| CALEB HOUSTAN | G/F | 6-8 | 205 | 10.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG |
| MOUSSA DIABATE | F | 6-11 | 210 | 8.7 PPG, 6 RPG |
| HUNTER DICKINSON | C | 7-1 | 260 | 18.3 PPG, 8.3 RPG |
Hunter Dickinson
In two games against the Buckeyes last season, Dickinson combined to score 43 points, and he’s only improved in his second season with the Wolverines. Dickinson leads Michigan with averages of 18.3 points and 8.3 boards per game, and he’s put up 24 points a night in the Wolverines’ last five outings. Dickinson tallied 22 points against Purdue on Thursday, and perhaps the scariest thing about his performance from the Buckeyes’ perspective is that the 7-footer also knocked down 4-of-6 3-pointers on the night.
Eli Brooks
The fifth-year Wolverine guard is having his best season with the maize and blue, averaging a career-high 12.1 points per game, which is second only to Dickinson on the Wolverines’ roster. Brooks is shooting 44.3 percent from the field, 40.4 percent from 3-point range and knocking down 88 percent of his free throw attempts, and his 2.9 assists per game are also second on the team. Brooks had one of his best games of the season against Purdue, scoring 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting and hitting all four of his 3-point attempts.
Caleb Houstan
A 6-foot-8 wing and five-star freshman, Houstan is the Wolverines’ third-leading scorer with an average of 10.5 points per game on 40.6 percent shooting. Houstan has started every game this season for Howard’s club, and he’s tallied double-digit point totals on 12 occasions. In his past eight appearances, Houstan is shooting an improved 50.8 percent from the floor and putting up better than 12 points per game.
How It Plays Out
Line: Michigan -2.5, O/U: 141.5
It's hard not to be swayed by Michigan's most recent performance, and the betting line certainly appears to have swung as a result of it. Dickinson was always going to be a matchup problem for the Buckeyes, and while I believe in Ohio State’s ability to edge out a close win against any Big Ten team, I think the Wolverines might get it done by a small margin Saturday.
Prediction: Michigan 75, Ohio State 72
