The Ohio State Buckeyes and Indiana Hoosiers play on Friday night, each attempting to avoid a three-game losing streak.
Friday, January 17th, 8:00 pm ET. FOX
Location: Schottenstein Center in Columbus, OH
In a competitive Big Ten, losing three consecutive games isn't a death knell for a team's postseason hopes, but it's pretty close. Both the Indiana Hoosiers and Ohio State will be looking to avoid that fate on Friday night.
Indiana could be seen as a disappointment at this point of the season, while Ohio State is arguably exceeding expectations in the first season of a new regime. Each team is squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Mike Woodson is on the hot seat with his alma mater. There was hope Woodson's Hoosiers would turn a corner this year, but that hasn't happened. In fact, the last two games have been some of the worst of his tenure, consecutive 25-point losses at the hands of Iowa and Illinois. Fans were vocally raining down calls for him to be fired on Tuesday.
There's still plenty of talent emerging out of Bloomington. Oumar Ballo in particular is a danger to the Buckeyes. He just scored 16 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the loss to Illinois, his fourth double-double in the past five games.
Ohio State may be the better team this season, although they don't have a winning record in conference play like Indiana does. Jake Diebler's squad is playing hard for the first-year coach, something even some of the student body doesn't realize as the Buckeyes close in on a national title in football.
And while Indiana has lost each of their last two games by 25 points, Ohio State has lost each of their last two games by two points a pop. They were getting blown out by Wisconsin before scratching and clawing their way two a tight loss on the road.
Ohio State's best player has been Bruce Thornton, who leads the team in scoring (17.4 points per game) and assists (4.4 assists per game). When it comes down to it, nobody on the Hoosiers can go shot-for-shot with the star guard.
The Buckeyes would benefit from the return of guard Meechie Johnson, but there's no indication of when or if that will happen. The South Carolina transfer has been away for seven games due to personal reasons.
Indiana has their own personnel issues. Malik Reneau has missed several games due to a knee injury and it doesn't appear the post-player will be able to return to the lineup for the Ohio State game, which should give a small Buckeyes lineup less issues on the interior.
The Hoosiers still have Ballo and Mackenzie Mgbako, two solid bigs in their own right. They have an opportunity to cause issues for Ohio State's frontcourt if they can stay out of foul trouble.
This should be a close game between two teams that could sorely use a win to get their season going in the right direction again.
Prediction: Indiana 77, Ohio State 74