Game Preview: No. 20 Ohio State vs. Purdue

Ohio State opens Big Ten play on Wednesday night in West Lafayette with the Purdue Boilermakers.

Author:
Brendan Gulick
Dec 16, 2020 5:36 PM EST

It's hard to believe Big Ten basketball is here, but it's hard to believe a lot of things about 2020. So ready or not, the Buckeyes have a big game to open league play on Wednesday night against one of the taller teams in the Big Ten.

No. 20 Ohio State Buckeyes (5-0) vs. Purdue Boilermakers (4-2)

Location: Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana
Game Time: 7:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: Big Ten Network
Radio Coverage: Ohio State Learfield/IMG College Sports Network (Flagship is 97.1 The Fan)

The beginning of the season for the Buckeyes has had moments of brilliance and others of frustrating, but they've been good enough to win all five of their games so far this year.

But the level of competition is about to stiffen considerably and for those who were around for the last trip to Purdue two years ago, tonight is a chance to get one back in a big way. The Boilermakers handed Ohio State perhaps its ugliest loss of the season two years ago when they beat up the Buckeyes, 86-51.

Ohio State has wins over four mid-major programs and Notre Dame on its resume, but without their best player tonight in E.J. Liddell as they open Big Ten action, they're going to have to be much better on the offensive end of the floor than they were on Sunday against Cleveland State.

Is his team ready for the Big Ten, which Chris Holtmann has routinely referred to as the best league in the country this year?

"I think we'll find out, right? Time will tell," Holtmann told reporters Tuesday. "Certainly in a perfect world, you'd like to have some more games under your belt and maybe a little bit more game experience against similar competition to the Big Ten. But I think we'll find out here. I think that's what these early games are. Obviously they're important games, but we're also still learning a lot about our group as a whole, and I'm sure Purdue and other Big Ten teams are in that boat as well.

BREAKING NEWS: Ibrahima Diallo Unavailable for Tonight's Game Against Purdue

"They know that the level of energy and intensity in the room is ratcheted up when it comes to league play. It just is. We'll remind them of that. We'll be prepared for it, and hopefully we'll respond with some really good, competitive stuff."

One thing is for sure - if Ohio State is going to win on the road, they have to shoot the 3-pointer more consistently. They've had some spectacular moments this season from long distance, and to their credit, they hit them when they needed them most on Saturday. But the Buckeyes really need to put Sunday's poor shooting performance behind them.

PURDUE OVERVIEW

Perhaps no team in the Big Ten seems to consistently have legit post player the way Matt Painter's teams have. It's part of the reason Ohio State really can't afford to look past the Boilermakers tonight. 6-10 junior forward Trevion Williams is a legit scoring threat and the has been great on the glass this year. The Boilermakers have a team rebounding margin of plus-10 so far through six games. Williams has four double-digit rebounding efforts so far and is coming off a fabulous 30-point, 11-rebound effort in their win over Indiana State.

Williams isn't their only rim-protector though. 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey comes off the bench and averages 13.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Williams is their most dangerous threat, but this team has some other pretty good options.

Purdue has shot at least 55.0 percent from the field in three games already this year; last season, it shot 55.0 percent just twice all season. But they haven't shot the 3-ball well lately.

Purdue is just 16-of-64 (.250) from long distance over the last three games. In the first three games, Purdue was 35-of-71 (.493) from deep. Sasha Stefanovic can really let it fly ... he's hit 19-of-36 (52.8 percent) 3-pointers on the season and has missed all five of his 2-point tries.

Here's another great stat for you: Purdue is 114-13 since the start of the 2014-15 season when attempting more free throws than its opponents. Considering the Buckeyes are averaging 27 free throws attempted per game (and generally shoot them very well), I'll be watching closely to see how often they try to get to the line tonight.

Redshirt freshman guard Brandon Newman started the season with 46 points through his first three games, but he's only scored 9 points in the last three. It's a similar story for sophomore guard Isaiah Thompson, who started the year on a good note, but hasn't scored at all in the last two games. Those are two of Matt Painter's starting guards each night.

OHIO STATE KEYS

1. Playing Big - Chris Holtmann told reporters yesterday that the Buckeyes are just going to have to deal with the fact that Purdue is going to score over top of them at times tonight. The good news is Ohio State just played a Cleveland State team that had good size and was very physical, so that should have been a good tune up for tonight.

Zed Key is coming off the finest performance of his young career in that over CSU on Sunday, so hopefully he'll play with some confidence tonight. Kyle Young's ankle has bothered him a bit this year, but he's also been a good post presence for OSU. I expect this to be a tough, big boy basketball game.

2. Who's filling Liddell's void? This was a key last game too and I think it's worth repeating because of the way the offense played Sunday. Chris Holtmann liked the way his team responded in adversity, but there were a number of things offensively he wasn't happy with - and a lot of them stem back to trying to figure out how to run a new offensive system this year, and currently doing it without arguably their best player.

C.J. Walker took a more authoritative role as the point guard and senior leader last time out. I expect Walker to have a similar mindset tonight ... by the way, congrats to Walker, who just received his diploma.

3. Paging Justice Sueing - At the beginning of the season, Sueing received a lot of attention for getting his first crack at playing after spending last year watching and practicing. Tonight is his Big Ten opener and if Ohio State is going to win, I think he has to be a scoring threat. Sueing got in foul trouble and was quiet offensively most of the game against Cleveland State. Look for him to make a bigger impact tonight.

MATCHUP TO WATCH

Purdue's Trevion Williams vs. Ohio State's Zed Key - Key took a nice step forward last time out and appears to be playing with a little more control. He's fun to watch and it feels like the game is slowing down for him a little bit. Just like Sueing, it's also his first ever Big Ten game. How he handles Williams tonight will tell us a lot about the Buckeyes ability to win on the road.