Ohio State-Wisconsin Preview

#1 Ohio State vs. #2 Wisconsin Preview
This is the most-hyped regular season Ohio State basketball game in recent memory. Although Wisconsin took a little bit of the hype away with their loss at Michigan State on Tuesday, tickets to the game are still going for $125 for the worst seats in the house. It could even be argued that now the game has more even importance to the teams than it did before. Now that Wisconsin has two losses in league play, they know that one more loss will take away any chance they had for even a split Big Ten title. And Ohio State will be just as motivated, partly for the revenge factor, partly for the Big Ten title, and partly because with The Schott rocking the way it's going to be, it will be impossible for them not to be motivated.

In the first game between these two teams, Wisconsin thoroughly outplayed Ohio State, and a flurry of three pointers in the final minutes made the 72-69 score seem much closer than the game actually was. Wisconsin effectively took Greg Oden out of the game, and the peremiter players weren't able to make the Badgers pay for it. I think that two factors in particular will push this game into the Buckeyes favor if Wisconsin plays them the same ways they did last time. First of all, Oden has so much more game experience under his belt now that I simply cannot fathom him being held down the way he was last game. Also, the way the Badgers defended Mike Conley the first time around was that they played off of him, let him shoot the three pointer if he wanted to, and tried to stop the drive as much as possible. Even though he was absolutely no threat from three-point range in that game, to me it was one of Conley's most impressive games of the season, as he was still able to get to the basket almost at will even with the defenders playing him only against the drive. Lately, Conley has become much more confident in his outside shooting, and his shooting been much improved. I think that if they play off him the same way this game, Conley will be able to look for his deep shot and also be able to hit it. If he starts making threes and defenders have to step up to guard him, getting to the basket will be even easier.

The toughest match-up for Ohio State in this game will obviously be Alando Tucker. He will most likely be guarded by an assortment of Ohio State players throughout the game, as Thad Matta will try to always keep a fresh defender on him. While the Bucks won't be able to completely stop Tucker, I believe they can, and will, contain him. However, the Badgers have other weapons such as Kammron Taylor, Brian Butch, Michael Flowers, and Marcus Landry. Ohio State cannot fall into the trap of focusing so much on stopping Tucker that they leave the other guys on the team open. Taylor and Butch in particular have the ability to have a big games. Another thing the Badgers have is their coach, Bo Ryan. Ryan knows how important this game is, and you can bet that he has done all he can to prepare himself and his team for the game. He wants to win a Big Ten title so badly for his senior class of players and knows he'll have to win in Columbus for it to happen.

Here is how I see the game going: I think it will be fairly even in the beginning and both teams settle into the rhythm of the game and the crowd gets warmed up. The Buckeyes will make a little surge in the middle of the first half and go into halftime with a lead. They will have another surge early in the second half and push the lead into double digits as they crowd threatens to blow the roff off The Schott. The Bucks will have a balanced scoring attack led by Oden and Conley, with Ron Lewis, Ivan Harris, Jamar Butler, and Dequan Cook also having solid games. However, Wisconsin's veteren players will not be fazed and they will slowly chip away at the lead. Tucker will be held to around 15 points, but Taylor, Butch and the rest of the supporting cast will make some big shots to keep Wisconsin in the game. Wisconsin takes the lead with a little under 2 minutes left in the games, but the Bucks battle back and re-take the lead under a minute. The young Buckeyes keep their composure down the stretch and pull out the victory with a final score of 74-70. And everyone in the country hopes for a re-match in the Big Ten tourney final.