Ohio State Basketball: Buckeyes must take care of business in Lincoln

The Ohio State basketball team is coming off a big win over the Maryland Terrapins but must not have a letdown against the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

After a rough start in conference play the Ohio State Buckeyes have battled back to even their record Big Ten record at 8-8. After a win over the No. 9 ranked Maryland Terrapins the Buckeyes should get over the .500 mark in the conference for the first time in 2020 against the 2-14 Nebraska Cornhuskers.

However, road wins are hard to come by in the Big Ten and Nebraska defeated Iowa and Indiana at home. Ohio State has lost to both of those teams on the road.

It’s not like the Cornhuskers lack for scoring threats either, especially at the guard positions. Haanif Cheatham is averaging 12.5 points per game, Cam Mack 12 and Dachon Burke Jr. 11.8. Thorir Thorbjarnarson is scoring 8.9 points per game and shoots 41.4 percent from behind the arc.

It’s obvious the Buckeyes will have to put pressure on the perimeter. Ohio State will also have to overcome other challenges.

There could be a letdown after defeating No. 9 Maryland. After pulling out a win over a good team it’s easy to take a lesser team lightly.

The next issue is Kyle Young’s ankle injury. While Ohio State still pulled out the win over Maryland with the junior forward out for much of the game, it will still be a learning curve for the Buckeyes with Young out of the lineup.

It will be important for Ohio State to get the ball inside to Kaleb Wesson early and often. And to older brother Andre at times as well as freshman forward E.J. Liddell.

Guards C,J, Walker, Duane Washington and Luther Muhammad will have to continue to be assertive on offense and make things difficult for Nebraska’s perimeter players on both ends of the court.

If these things happen the Buckeyes will come out of the game 9-8 in the Big Ten. If not, they could suffer a bad loss and have to fight back to even their conference record.