Ohio State (13-4, 3-3) vs. No. 7/7 Michigan State (15-3, 5-1)

Date: Sunday, January 25
Time: 3:45 p.m. ET
Place: Value City Arena – capacity 19,049
TV: CBS Sports (WBNS – Channel 10 in Columbus) with Verne Lundquist and Clark “Special K” Kellogg.
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 48-57 all-time record against Michigan State, but the Buckeyes are 32-20 vs. the Spartans in games played in Columbus.
Last Game: Ohio State lost to Michigan State, 67-58, at the Breslin Center in E. Lansing, back on Jan. 6. The Buckeyes led 17-13 with 8:13 remaining in the first half after a jumper by William Buford, but the Spartans responded by going on an 18-3 run fueled on five, three-pointers and never looked back. Ohio State trailed by eight with a little over 8:00 left, but that’s as close as the Buckeyes could get. Buford led OSU with 17 points, while Evan Turner poured in 14. Kalin Lucas led all scorers with 20 points and Raymar Morgan chipped in 13 for the Spartans.

Above: Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo (far right) looks on during the closing minutes
of the Spartans’ 70-63 loss to Northwestern, Wednesday night. (AP Photo)

Michigan State looked like the clear-cut favorite to wrap-up the Big Ten title after winning their first five games in the conference. Then lo and behold, perennial cellar dweller Northwestern ventured into the Breslin Center in E. Lansing where the Spartans have won 28 straight contests and the Wildcats came away with a 70-63 win, Wednesday night.

Kevin Coble scored 31 points for Northwestern (10-6, 2-4 Big Ten), who have won back-to-back Big Ten games after starting conference play with four straight losses.

Michigan State had won 12 straight over Northwestern. The Spartans had won 11 straight overall this season since losing to then-No. 1 North Carolina on Dec. 3.

Against Northwestern’s 1-3-1 zone defense, Michigan State committed 18 turnovers while holding the Spartans to 40.4 percent shooting from the field.

The Spartans got only one point from second-leading scorer and rebounder, 6-foot-8 junior Raymar Morgan, who entered averaging 14.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. He was bothered by flu-like symptoms and played just 18 minutes, leaving smaller wing players stuck guarding Coble.

Michigan State’s leading scorer, 6-foot sophomore guard Kalin Lucas, who is averaging 14.1 points per game, scored 20 vs. Northwestern. Goran Suton, a 6-foot-10 senior center who averages 9.5 points and a team-best 7.3 rebounds per game, had a double-double of 15 points and 14 rebounds for Michigan State.

Before the Northwestern loss, Michigan State had rattled off five straight conference wins including a 67-58 victory over Ohio State in E. Lansing back on Jan. 6.

The Buckeyes are coming off an downright ugly 67-49 defeat at Illinois, Tuesday night. It will be interesting to see which team responds after a loss. A win against the Spartans and the Buckeyes are back in the title hunt, while a loss would send them under the .500-mark in conference.

Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Sophomore Evan Turner found it to be tough sledding against Illinois.
(AP Photo/Robert K. O’Daniell)

When your best player scores just four points, and as a team commits 20 turnovers, you can chalk it up as an L on the standings just about every time.

That’s what happen in Ohio State’s 67-49 lost to No. 25 Illinois last night at Assembly Hall in Champaign, IL.

The Buckeye were never really in the game. The contest was tied twice early in the first half and Ohio State never held a lead at any point.

Illinois led 38-26 at intermission, and took their biggest lead of the game with 2:46 left play when Dominique Keller scored on a layup that put the Illini ahead 67-49, which was the final score. Neither team was able to put any crooked numbers in the scorebook for nearly three minutes until the horn sounded.

The closest the Buckeyes got in the second half was when Dallas Lauderdale scored on a short jumper in the lane that trimmed Illinois lead down to 38-30 with 17:34 left to play.

But Illinois scored on their very next possession when Mike Davis added his own J in the key and the Illini led by double digits the rest of the game.

B.J. Mullens led the Buckeyes in scoring by pouring in 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and pulled down seven rebounds. Outside of Dallas Lauderdale’s making both shots he attempted from the floor for five points in the game, the rest of the young Bucks’ were bricklayers.

William Buford added 13 points, but was just 5-of-14 from the field and was the only other Buckeye to score in double figures. Evan Turner, who was averaging 15.9 points per ball game entering the Illinois contest scored just four points on 2-of-7 shooting, though he did have a team-high 10 rebounds. Point guard Jeremie Simmons also clanged the rim often, making just two of his eight attempts from the field and netted seven points.

Overall, Ohio State shot 41.3 percent (19-of-46) from the field, but was just 4-of-15 from beyond the arc.

Defensively, Illinois attacked the holes in Ohio State’s 3-2 zone down low as Illini forwards Mike Tisdale along with Davis and Keller combined to score 35 points on 15-of-23 shooting.

Illinois shot 47.1 percent (27-of-57) from the field, but the Illini had their problems from long range, too, knocking down just six of the 22 three-pointers they attempted.

It look as though the Buckeyes were still celebrating their win over Michigan and were not focused on Illinois. That’s going to have to change real quick as the seventh-ranked Michigan State Spartans, led by 6-foot-8 forward Raymar Morgan, pay a visit to Value City Arena on Sunday. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised on CBS.

Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Byron James Mullens throws down two of his 15 points against Michigan.
(AP Photo/Tony Ding)

Ohio State moved into a four-way tie for third place in the Big Ten after an impressive 65-58 win over their rival and previously 25th-ranked Michigan at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Saturday night.

Evan Turner led all Buckeyes with 19 points while William Buford and B.J. Mullens each chipped in 15 for Ohio State.

With Ohio State’s victory, the Buckeyes failed to climb back into any top 25 poll on Monday, but Buford was named Big Ten player of the week after leading OSU to a pair of victories over Indiana and Michigan. In those two wins, Buford averaged 17 points, six rebounds and went 13-of-25 (.520) from the field. The Toledo, Ohio native also recorded four assists and two steals while averaging 36.5 minutes per game.

Against Michigan, Ohio State only briefly trailed in the second half. Down 44-40 with 8:15 left to play as Michigan claimed their biggest advantage of the game, jumpers by Turner and Buford tied the contest at 44-all on consecutive possessions.

Later with 5:31 remaining in the ball game, Michigan’s Stu Douglass drained a three-pointer that once again tied the game, this time at 47-47.

But from that point, the Buckeyes scored the game’s next 10 points to take a 57-47 lead after an old school three-point play by Mullens with 1:08 to go.

In over four minutes of action during Ohio State’s 10-0 run, Michigan went 0-of-4 from the floor, including 0-of-2 from three-point range with two turnovers as the Buckeyes’ kicked up the defense a notch.

Ohio State shot 54.5 percent (24-of-44) from the field, while holding Michigan to just 35.7 percent (20-of-56) from the floor. The bigger Buckeyes also outrebounded the smaller Wolverines 32-38.

Up next, Ohio State travels to Chambana to take on No. 25 Illinois. Tip-off at Assembly Hall is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and it will be televised on ESPN.

Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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