Ohio State (15-7) at Indiana (13-10)
When: Sunday, February 10th, 2019
Where: Assembly Hall,
Bloomington, Indiana
Time: 1:00 ET | TV: CBS
Opening Odds: Indiana -2/134
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The calendar has turned to February and that means we start talking more and more about teams on the bubble. Two of those teams will meet on Sunday afternoon in a key Big Ten matchup featuring the Ohio State Buckeyes and Indiana Hoosiers from Bloomington, Indiana. According to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, the Buckeyes are in as a No. 9 seed for the NCAA Tournament, while the Hoosiers are one of the first four teams out. Part of Indiana’s problem is a rare one – losing games at home. Indiana has dropped three straight at Assembly Hall and will get five more home games to close out the season beginning with Sunday’s tilt versus Ohio State. The Hoosiers snapped a seven-game losing streak with an upset win at No. 11 Michigan State, but followed that up with a 77-72 home loss to No. 20 Iowa – their third consecutive setback at home. Ohio State has been playing better, winning three of their last four including a home win over Penn State on Wednesday. This is the first and only regular season meeting between these teams after Ohio State took both games last year including an 80-78 overtime win in Bloomington.
Ohio State would love to see leading scorer Kaleb Wesson (14.9 points) stay on the court more as he fouled out once again against Penn State on Wednesday. Wesson averages 6.6 fouls per 40 minutes in Big Ten games which limits him to just under 25 minutes a contest, but when he’s out on the floor he’s shooting 52.5 percent from the field. Wesson’s older brother, Andre, had one of his better games on Wednesday, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 boards. Freshman Luther Muhammad went 8-for-8 from the free throw line against the Nittany Lions and is averaging 10.2 points while hitting 45.2 percent of his 3-point shots.
Indiana fell into an early hole against Iowa that it couldn’t recover from even though they made a valiant effort. The Hoosiers shot 49.1 percent from the floor versus the Hawkeyes and outrebounded them 33-30, but fell to 4-8 in conference play. Senior Juwan Morgan is Indiana’s leading rebounder (7.8 per game) and second-leading scorer behind freshman Romeo Langford (17.6 points), who had 15 of his 22 points in the second half against Iowa. Indiana needs more production from its bench on Sunday after they managed just seven points against Iowa.
Its really hard to think Indiana can lose four home games in a row, but they’re really not that good and Ohio State is on a bit of a roll. The Buckeyes’ shooting has slowly improved during the season and they should be able to shoot their way past the Hoosiers on Sunday.
Pick: Ohio State +2
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