Ohio State basketball vs. Minnesota: Best bets Thursday January 12

The Ohio State basketball team is looking to turn things around tonight when they take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Buckeyes have lost back-to-back games to start the month of January. It seems like Chris Holtmann’s annual January slide is underway.

In order for them to stop that, they must beat the Golden Gophers tonight. Minnesota comes into this game winless in the Big Ten. In fact, they are just 6-8 overall. They have some awful losses on their resume. If Ohio State loses this game, it’s time to sound the alarm bells.

This is a home game for the Buckeyes in the Schott, so they have an advantage already. It’s unclear if Zed Key will be available for this one after hurting his shoulder against Purdue, but my assumption is that he won’t play. We won’t know that for sure until closer to tip-off.

Ohio State basketball vs. Minnesota best bets

According to FanDuel, Ohio State is a whopping 14.5-point favorite. I have to be honest, I don’t see them covering that spread. January is always a tough month for the Buckeyes, especially if they don’t have Key available to them. I do think they’ll win the game though.

I like a same-game parlay of Ohio State winning 1-10 and the total going under. The total is set at 136.5. I see that going under because of how much the Buckeyes struggled with the press last game against Maryland. Minnesota might press the whole game now because of how badly they struggled with it.

Putting those two bets together gives you +525 odds. That’s pretty good value. I think the Buckeyes do snap their losing streak and win the game 71-63. Brice Sensabaugh will score at least 15 points again but will do so on inefficient shooting.

Now that sports betting is legal in Ohio, I hope you are taking full advantage of it! Do so responsibly of course.