Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Penn State Nittany Lions

Date: Tuesday, February 24
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Place: Value City Arena – capacity 19,049
TV: ESPN with Brent “Pard’ner” Musburger and Steve “Hair Gel” Lavin.
Radio: WBNS-AM 1460 and WBNS-FM 97.1 in Columbus and 58 more stations across Buckeyeland on the Ohio State Buckeyes Radio Network with Paul Keels and Ron Stokes.
Series History: Ohio State owns a 21-12 all-time record vs. Penn State.
Last Game: Ohio State defeated Penn State 68-56 back on January 29, 2008, at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Penn. Jamar Butler scored 20 points and Kosta Koufos added 10 for the Buckeyes. Defensively, the Nittany Lions went 10-plus minutes in the second half without a basket

Right: Penn State’s 5-foot-11 point guard Talor Battle leads the Big Ten in scoring, averaging 17.3 points per game.
(The Daily Collegian Photo)

In my five-plus years of owning and writing on this blog, never once have I uttered the words, “this is a big game,” when it comes to Ohio State vs. Penn State in basketball.

Oh sure, every year on the gridiron, the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions are fierce battles. But basketball? Never. Until now.

Ohio State has been on the losing end the last three times out, dropping decisions to Wisconsin, Northwestern and Illinois, and desperately needs a win to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive.

Penn State, who has not played a game since last Wednesday in which they scored a paltry 38 points and freakin’ won, should be well-rested.

The Buckeyes, meanwhile, can’t say the same thing after playing the Illini on Sunday. It appears that Thad Matta’s cagers are running out of gas as the season draws to an end.

The Nittany Lions have also lost three-straight this month, dropping decisions to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Purdue between Feb. 5-11, before righting the ship and winning two in a row against Minnesota and the aforementioned Illinois.

Penn State’s Talor Battle, a 5-foot-11 sophomore point guard, leads the Big Ten in scoring by one-tenth of a point over Ohio State’s Evan Turner. Battle is scoring on average 17.3 points per ball game.

Battle, though, has struggled with his shooting through most of February. Since hitting on 11-of-19 shots in a victory against Michigan State on Feb. 1, Battle has gone 16-of-63 for the rest of this month (25.3 percent), dropping his season shooting percentage from 44 percent down to 40.9.

Jamelle Cornley, a Columbus Brookhaven grad, is the Lions’ second-leading scorer (14.6 ppg) and top rebounder (6.6 rpg).

Stanley Pringle, Penn State’s third-leading point contributor (12.7 ppg), is the Lions’ best shooter from beyond the arc at 46.7 percent.

For the Buckeyes to win, it’s all about defense. It’s really time for Matta to get rid of the match-up zone, but that’s not going to happen this season. And the lack of depth is killing the Buckeyes. But Ohio State needs to be aware of the shooters on the perimeter, especially behind the arc. Penn State doesn’t have much of an inside game except for Cornley. Matching up against the Lions in a man-to-man defense would benefit the Buckeyes, though it expends more energy and you run the risk of getting into foul trouble.

The Buckeyes are going to have to dig deep, but they can and will pull of a win Tuesday night.

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