Ohio State basketball: Buckeyes need to rally against IU

The Ohio State basketball team lost their first game at home all year on Saturday when they fell to Iowa. They fell in large part because they allowed 20 offensive rebounds in the game. Those rebounds kept possessions alive and killed the Buckeyes’ chances of winning.

Now they play a game just over 48 hours later. They take on Indiana for another game at the Schott. We’ll see if the Buckeyes are able to have a different result than last time they took on IU as they lost in Bloomington after a dominating effort from Trayce Jackson-Davis.

Defending Jackson-Davis will be the key in this one. Using Kyle Young, Zed Key, and E.J. Liddell as a rotating cast to defend him is going to be needed for Ohio State to win. They also need to hit a higher percentage of their threes after going just 2-18 against Iowa.

Liddell has to be the focal point of the offense, but role players have to step up once the defense collapses on him. He is going to be the best player on the floor and he is a good passer out of double-teams. It’s up to the other Buckeye players to make shots.

Rebounding will also be a big key. Iowa took 15 more shots than Ohio State did on Saturday. Those 20 offensive rebounds the Hawkeyes had really hurt Ohio State’s ability to keep Iowa from scoring. IU is a good rebounding team too. Boxing out will be imperative in this one.

Coming off a loss at home, I can’t see the Ohio State basketball team losing two games in a row at the Schott. I have Ohio State exacting revenge on Indiana and winning the game tonight 73-68. Ohio State has too much pride to lose two games in a row at home.

The game is on at 7 pm tonight on Fox Sports 1.