Ohio State basketball vs. Eastern Illinois: Preview

The Ohio State basketball team plays its third game of the season today when they take on Eastern Illinois. This is the third straight game they have played at home to start the season after beating both Robert Morris and Charleston Southern at the Schott.

Eastern Illinois comes into this game 0-3 and already has lost to a Big Ten opponent. They opened up the season against Illinois and only managed to score 57 points in that loss. They are not an opponent that the Buckeyes have to worry about upsetting them.

That’s good because the schedule gets a lot tougher after this game. They play San Diego State Monday night in the first game of the Maui Invitational after this. That game will tell us how good this Buckeye team really is. But first, they have to beat Eastern Illinois.

Ohio State basketball vs. Eastern Illinois: Prediction

I’m interested to see how this team continues to build chemistry. Justice Sueing has looked really good since coming back from his injury. Zed Key has added range to his game and is shooting 80% from the floor in the early going. Brice Sensabaugh has shown he can score in a hurry.

All of this should continue to happen against a bad Eastern Illinois team. At no point should this game be close. It will be a nice final tune-up before the real competition starts next week. I think both Sueing and Key could score more than 20 points in this game, as could Tanner Holden.

I like the Buckeyes to win this one 88-63. This should give Chris Holtmann one last game to figure out what his rotation is going to be once they start playing some tough competition. He’s been able to play everyone so far this season and that should be the case again tonight.