Ohio State Basketball: Cyclones a good or bad matchup for the Buckeyes?
The matchup between Ohio State and Iowa State should be an interesting one with a strong defensive team going against a high scoring one.
The Ohio State Buckeyes will face a high scoring offense in their first game of the NCAA Tournament. The Iowa State Cyclones are averaging 77.4 points per game and Ohio State has had difficulty keeping up with teams that can put points on the board at times.
However, I’m not so sure this is a bad matchup for the Buckeyes. I’ll look at the positive and negatives of having to face the Cyclones in the first round game.
First, Iowa State has a talented group of guards who know how to put the ball in the hole. Marial Shayok leads the way averaging 18.6 points per game.
His teammates Lindell Wigginton (13.5 ppg), Talen Horton-Tucker (12.1) and Nick Weiler-Babb (9.2) are pretty good too. And only Horton-Tucker is shooting under 36.5 percent from behind the arc.
Forward Michael Jacobson is also a scoring threat averaging 11.5 points per game with a 34 percent three-point shooting percentage.
The Cyclones are shooting 47.7 percent from the field and averaging 36.5 points per game on three-point shots. It will be imperative the Buckeyes will have to play man up defense and deny them open looks especially on the perimeter.
Now let’s look at the bright side.
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Even though Iowa State is the higher seeded team this could be a good matchup for the Buckeyes. The Iowa Hawkeyes were a similar opponent with a potent offensive (78.3 ppg) and Ohio State kept up with them scoring 90 points and winning by 20. Probably because Iowa isn’t one of the more physical teams in the conference.
A finesse, up-tempo team doesn’t give the Buckeyes problems like physical teams do. It’s the teams who can be effective in the paint on offense and defense that gives them problems.
That’s evidenced by Ohio State’s 10-1 non-conference record while only going 9-13 against Big Ten teams, counting the conference tournament games.
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I actually see this as a good matchup for the Buckeyes. They have athletic defenders on the perimeter who may be able to slow the Cyclones’ guards down. The key to pulling off the upset though may be Kaleb Wesson staying on the floor for 30 minutes.