Ohio State Basketball: Is this the most important stretch of the season?

The Ohio State basketball team is facing its toughest stretch of games of the season. The next three games will bring the best out of this Buckeyes team. The Buckeyes travel to Minnesota on the 27th, to Purdue on the 30th, and start the month of February with Iowa coming to Columbus.

Over the past several weeks we have been waiting for this Ohio State team to get back to the team they were before the COVID pause. We’ve seen some positive glimpses in different games, but we’ve also seen the games with extremely poor defense and shooting woes.

The IUPUI game might have been a blessing in disguise. The Buckeyes in that game finally looked like the Buckeyes from early December. They gained some confidence from knocking down shots, playing tough defense, learning a lot about certain guys, and saw if they are deserving of expanding minutes.

Ohio State would’ve gotten another little tune-up game this Saturday at home against Nebraska until that game got postponed. Now they have to go on what is their toughest road trip of the season not knowing confidently they are back to normal.

The Buckeyes have had their struggles up in Minnesota as of late. They haven’t beaten the Gophers on their home floor since the 2014-15 season and it took overtime to get the win. They have lost the last three games in Minneapolis by an average of 13.3 PPG. The Barn is a loud environment to play in and it hasn’t treated the Buckeyes well.

After Minnesota comes the trip to West Lafayette in another loud atmosphere at Mackey Arena against the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue is arguably the best team in the Big Ten. Purdue has a heavy size advantage over the Ohio State basketball team with 7-4 Zach Edey, 6-10 Trevion Williams, and 6-10 Caleb Furst. You also can’t forget about the multi-skilled Jaden Ivey who is a blur in the open floor. There is no doubt it will be a tough matchup for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State hasn’t won at Purdue since 2017-18, losing in their last two trips by an average of 21 PPG and they are 1-4 in their last 5 trips to Mackey. Mackey Arena is one of the loudest venues in all of college basketball and it is not a friend to the Buckeyes especially after what happened in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

To finish out this stretch the Buckeyes will be hosting the Iowa Hawkeyes to start the month of February. The Hawkeyes are 3-4 in the conference, a game below .500, and sitting at 8th in the Big Ten standings, but they have the nation’s second-leading scorer in Keegan Murray. Murray is averaging an efficient 23.2 PPG and 58.4% from the field. He will poise a difficult defensive matchup for Ohio State in this game.

It’s a bummer the Nebraska game was postponed because it would have been a good confidence-boosting game for the Buckeyes as they head into this tough stretch of games. Depending on how the Ohio State basketball team finishes after this stretch could affect the future greatly.