The Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team has been unique, to say the least, this season. The Buckeyes have won back-to-back games only twice since November, which is insane considering we are now halfway through February. They sit at 16 and 9 overall and 8 and 6 in Big Ten play, with three losses coming in one-score games. The Buckeyes have struggled against ranked opponents and have yet to beat one this season. Tonight they square off against the No. 24 Wisconsin Badgers at home at The Schott with tipoff set for 8:30 PM ET.
Ohio State faced these Badgers in Madison on January 31 and fell 92 to 82 in a game where the Buckeyes shot just 41% from the field and 34% from three. They actually outrebounded Wisconsin, but it still was not enough to overcome the Badgers’ backcourt duo of John Blackwell and Nick Boyd, who combined for 43 points.
Can Ohio State pick up its first win over a ranked team tonight against Wisco? Can it all finally come together for the Buckeyes, or are they still stuck in no man’s land this season?
Here is the blueprint for how Ohio State can upset Wisconsin in Columbus on Tuesday evening.
Force Wisconsin into tough three-point shots
Wisconsin is one of the Big Ten’s highest volume three-point teams, but they are streaky. When the shots are falling, the Badgers are tough to beat. When they are not, the offense can stall and start to look one-dimensional. In Wisconsin’s seven losses this season, they shot poorly from three in six of them. They were at 24% against BYU, 25% against TCU, 22% against Nebraska, 16% against Purdue, 24% against USC, and 33% against Indiana. The lone outlier was 43% against Villanova.
If Ohio State wants to win, it cannot allow Wisconsin to get comfortable from deep. When the Badgers are missing from three, other weaknesses such as paint scoring and rebounding become more noticeable. The Buckeyes have to play sound, disciplined defense and avoid leaving shooters open beyond the arc.
Generate turnovers early and often
Wisconsin has committed double-digit turnovers in several of its key losses, including games against BYU, TCU, and Nebraska. Those mistakes led to easy points the other way and major momentum swings.
If Ohio State can force errors and convert them into transition opportunities, that is a huge recipe for an upset. The Buckeyes need to speed this game up, create live-ball turnovers, and turn steals into easy baskets. When Wisconsin is uncomfortable and playing faster than they want to, the Badgers tend to settle for contested threes. That is where they can get into trouble.
The supporting cast around Bruce Thornton needs to show up
The senior guard from Fairburn, Georgia, Bruce Thornton, has been Ohio State’s best player this season, averaging nearly 20 points per game. He has shown up in almost all of Ohio State’s biggest games, but his teammates have struggled to match that level against ranked opponents.
John Mobley Jr., the second leading scorer on this team, showed flashes earlier in the year but is now out indefinitely with a hand injury sustained against USC on February 11. That puts even more pressure on Devin Royal, Christoph Tilly, and Amare Bynum.
Royal plays heavy minutes and has had a rough shooting stretch lately, outside of the USC game, where he scored 19 points. If he can give Ohio State 12 or more points tonight, it significantly boosts their chances and takes some of the load off Thornton.
Bynum and Tilly are the true wild cards. The last time Ohio State played Wisconsin, Bynum scored 18 points on 50% shooting, while Tilly went 0 for 8 from the field. That kind of split cannot happen again. The Buckeyes need a collective effort from Royal, Tilly, Bynum, and the bench. It cannot be another night where Thornton carries the offense while everyone else fades into the background.
This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Blueprint for Ohio State basketball to upset No. 24 Wisconsin