Jan 26, 2013; University Park, PA, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes guard Aaron Craft (4) drives to the basket around Penn State Nittany Lions guard Nick Colella (20) during the second half at the Bryce Jordan Center. Ohio State defeated Penn State 65-51. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

On Tuesday, the Ohio State Buckeyes face off against the Wisconsin Badgers at Value City Area. The Buckeyes enter tomorrow’s contest ranked 11th in the nation and hold a 15-4 record. They are 5-2 in the Big 10. They currently sit behind Michigan, Indiana and Michigan State.

The Badgers enter the ballgame with 14-6 record, 5-2 in conference. They are currently unranked. Despite being unranked, the Badgers have one of the top defenses in the country. The Badgers have the 7th ranked defense in the nation that only allows 54.9 points per game. Scoring points against the Badger defense will be difficult.

The Badgers are led by Jared Berggren (#40), a Forward-Center, from Princeton, Minnesota. Berggren averages 12.0 points per game. Wisconsin has two other scorers in double figures as well, Forward Ryan Evans and Guard Ben Brust.

As stated above, scoring against the Badgers will be tough. But, the Buckeyes should be able to do so. The Buckeyes will need a solid performance from Deshaun Thomas. Thomas is averaging 20.0 points per game. His 3-point shooting will be needed to stretch the Badger Defense.

The current Vegas odds have Ohio State winning by 6 points. The under/over for this game is 119.5 total points. This suggests a low scoring game. This makes complete sense with two teams that only average 140.8 points per game and both play great defense.

Conventional wisdom says that Ohio State wins a difficult game. Three of the last four meetings between the two clubs have resulted been decided by an average of 4.3 points. The home team has won in the last seven match ups.

Scarlet and Game Prediction: Wisconsin 56-Ohio State 64

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Terrelle Pryor and co. face tough challenges in their schedule this season

The Buckeyes seem to luck out by getting rivals Penn State and Michigan at home this season when the Nittany Lions will have a new quarterback under center and reload on defense, and Michigan is going through the era of hell under Rich Rodriguez. However they get the wonderful task of having to go to two of the toughest stadiums in America for two road games against the teams that threaten them the most for the Big Ten crown, Wisconsin and Iowa.

The Badgers are coming off of a surprising 10-3 season, which ended with a beat down of Miami in the Champs Sports Bowl. They return starters Scott Tolzien at QB and John Clay (who could be a dark horse Heisman candidate) at tailback on offense and a stout defense lead by hard hitting safety Jay Valei. The last time the Buckeyes went to Camp Randall Terrelle Pryor was a freshman QB and the Buckeyes came out with a 20-17 victory on a last second touchdown by Pryor. Though it was two years the Badgers haven’t forgotten that loss and with possible BCS or national championship implications this re-match will be a nail-biter for sure.

Iowa poses the biggest threat for the Buckeyes this year for two reasons; one, the Iowa d-line led by Adrian Claiborne is one of the best in the nation. It gave Georgia Tech fits in the Orange Bowl and made quarterbacking a nightmare for Darryl Clark, Juice Williams and others in the Big Ten last year. Two, Kinnick Stadium has been the place where BCS title hopes have come to die in the last two years. Undefeated Penn State was 9-0 coming off of a victory versus Ohio State in 2008 when Iowa sent them home crying with a last second field goal, and it happened to Iowa last year when Northwestern came in and took advantage of four Iowa turnovers and sent the Hawkeyes reeling. If the Buckeyes make it past Penn State the previous week they should be on red alert for a possible heartbreaker in Iowa City.

The game that I believe the Buckeyes should be most weary of is October 23^rd versus Purdue. The Boilermakers gave the Buckeyes their most humiliating loss last year and have improved mightily on offense this year with former Miami star recruit Robert Mavre under center. Also this is a classic trap game for the Buckeyes as it’s a week after their road trip to Wisconsin, and before its big stretch at Minnesota and Iowa and home games against Penn State and Michigan. If there’s any game the Buckeyes and their fans should be most concerned with it is this one.

So as exciting as the Miami game will be, don’t expect that to be the Buckeyes only test this year. The Bucks have tough contests throughout their schedule as the Big Ten has improved drastically this year as opposed to previous years.