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Wednesday night's action looks to be themed with revenge on the mind for Maryland and Ohio State. The Terrapins try and answer back after being humiliated by the Hoosiers in Bloomington by 19 points back in January, while Ohio State still remembers losing to the Nittany Lions twice last season.
Game of the Night
Indiana (17-7, 7-4) at Maryland (19-5, 7-4) 9:00 ET on BTN
Maryland looks to get payback on Indiana Wednesday night, after being picked apart by the Hoosiers earlier this season 89-77 in Assembly Hall. The Terrapins will try to take advantage of Indiana's struggles on the road, which include three straight by double figures, and double up on that by playing at the XFINITY Center, where Maryland is undefeated in conference play and has won 9 straight.
What to look for:
Freshman scoring guard battle between James Blackmon of IU and Melo Trimble of Maryland will face off once again. In their first meeting Blackmon scored 22 points on 8-14 shooting, while Melo was held below his season average of 15.4 points per game when he finished with 10 points for the game.
In the first match up Indiana was able to shoot a ridiculous 60 percent from the field, and 68 percent from three point range, including a season high 15 made three pointers. Maryland prides their self on the defense end of the court, so I would expect the Terrapins to make an effort to not allow many open looks from deep.
The Hoosiers had four different players score 15 points or above at Assembly Hall (Yogi Ferrell-24, James Blackmon-22, Troy Williams-16, and Collin Hartman-15) while Maryland's leading scorer (Jake Layman) only had 13 points. Maryland shot a lousy 50 percent from the free throw line in the first match up against Indiana, 24 percent below their season average.
Look for Wednesday night's rematch to be a little more exciting than the 19 point blowout that Indiana was able to put on show back at Assembly Hall as both teams try to gain a game in the standings for a better seed in the conference tournament. Maryland is going to look to focus on the defensive end, while the Hoosiers are wanting to execute the exact same game plan from the first bout.
The Rest:
Ohio State (18-6, 7-4) at Penn State (15-9, 3-8) 7:00ET on BTN
Trust me when I say that Ohio State has not forgotten what happened last season against Penn State. The Buckeyes had won 18 consecutive games over the Nittany Lions before losing both games last season. One of the losses came at the hands of Penn State star DJ Newbill who scored 25 points and knocked down a 3 pointer with only 2 seconds remaining to force the game into overtime, where they eventually won.
But that was last year and this is now, Ohio State is led by one of the most dynamic freshman in the nation D'Angelo Russell, who is coming off his best performance on Sunday against Rutgers, that gave him his first triple-double of the season. (23 points, 11 assists, and 11 rebounds) Russell, who leads the Big Ten in scoring (21.7 ppg and 5.5 apg) in league play, will have to carry the load again for Ohio State as they will be playing without sharp shooter Marc Loving (11.7 ppg) who is serving his second game of his indefinite suspension. Penn State on the other hand may appear easy on paper, but the Nittany Lions are known for playing their opponents tough having lost 7 of their 8 conference games by single digits. DJ Newbill will look to continue to grow upon the two game trend they started last season with a home victory Wednesday night.