Ohio State basketball: Buckeyes need a win vs. Minnesota

The Ohio State basketball team faces off against Minnesota in The Barn. The Buckeyes need a win to get a winning record in the Big Ten.

It’s early in the Big Ten basketball season, but one thing is already very clear. The Big Ten might be the best conference in the country. The Ohio State basketball team is going to face a lot of good teams and needs to beat the teams that they should.

Minnesota is one of those teams that the Buckeyes need to beat. While they are ranked higher than the Buckeyes in the polls, they aren’t one of the upper-echelon teams in the league. They are a good team that is still beatable. It would be a good victory to add to Ohio State’s resume.

If they want to win this game, they have to stop Marcus Carr. Carr has killed the Buckeyes in his career. He had 35 points in his first meeting against the Buckeyes last season and then had another 21 point outburst in the second meeting. He singlehandedly beat them.

Carr is off to another great start this season, averaging 22.7 points per game so far. He needs to be priority number one for the Buckeyes’ defense. If they don’t stop him, they have no shot to win this evening. Chris Holtmann knows this though and should have a plan to defend him closely.

E.J. Liddell and Seth Towns are going to be the key on offense for the Buckeyes. Towns has been excellent off the bench and gives Ohio State a nice scoring punch. Liddell is obviously the best offensive player Ohio State has and needs to have at least 20 in this one.

Game Prediction: Ohio State 70 Minnesota 78

This game is on the road, and even though there are no fans, it’s enough to give Minnesota the win. The Barn has one of the weirdest shooting backgrounds in college basketball. Ohio State doesn’t shoot the ball well so that’s enough for them to lose.

There will be other opportunities for them to win games like this. But this isn’t one of them. Ohio State plays Minnesota at 5:30 pm on Big Ten Network.