Ohio State vs Indiana Preview: Can OSU Bounce Back

By the Numbers:

March 2, 2014 - Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana

4:00 PM EST - CBS

Skinny:

Both these teams played this Thursday, with Ohio State losing to Penn State for the second time this season and Indiana coming away with an impressive win in the rescheduled game against Iowa. Postseason-wise there is not a whole lot left for these two teams to play for, outside of BTT seeding. Indiana will likely have to win the BTT to secure an NCAA bid, but likely have an NIT berth wrapped up after Thursday. OSU is an NCAA lock, but could end up anywhere between a 3 and a 9 seed depending on how their season ends. This is the only meeting for these two teams in the regular season, last time they met was at Indiana last season. The Buckeyes won 67-58, but IU won the regular season title that day.

Projected Starting Lineups:

Players to Watch:

Aaron Craft: Craft will most likely end up playing most of the game lined up against Ferrell. If Craft can shut down the talented sophomore, IU will have to find another scoring option, something have struggled to do at times this season.

Amir Williams: Williams needs to play much better than he did against Penn State if the Buckeyes want to win. The big man ended up with more fouls than points against the Nittany Lions. He can't let that happen against IU and Vonleh today.

Stanford Robinson: The freshman had his best game of the season with 17 points against Iowa, going 5 of 6 from the field and 7 of 10 from the line. If Robinson can lighten the load for Ferrell in the backcourt it could really open things up for the Hoosiers.

Will Sheehey: Sheehey played extremely well at home Thursday, scoring 30 against the Hawkeyes. With only two more games left at Assembly Hall, could we see the senior have another career game?

Ohio State Perspective:

The Buckeyes need to bounce back from their loss against Penn State and gain some momentum going into the postseason. OSU knows how to win in Assembly Hall, they did it last year. A loss today will be a disappointment for a team who believes they are better than their record shows.

Indiana Perspective:

IU is playing their third game of this week due to the rescheduled matchup against Iowa. They will need to come out with energy and hit their shots if they want to win. The Hoosiers are going to be going for revenge after Ohio State beat them at home last year on the day they clinched the B1G championship. If the Buckeyes win again there will be no silver lining, and Tom Crean won't be cutting down any nets afterwards.

Prediction:

I find this game extremely hard to predict, but I think Thad Matta will have his team ready to play. After the last loss to Penn State, they went into the Kohl Center and won against Wisconsin. Ohio State 64 Indiana 60