Game Day Essentials: Game #14 at Ohio St - 1/2/2013

Ohio State Info

Mascot: Buckeye (Brutus Buckeye)

School Location: Columbus, OH

Last game out: Beat Chicago State

Coach: Thad Motta

Preseason B1G All Conference: Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft

Probable Starters:

Nebraska Cornhuskers (9-4)

3-Benny Parker - 5-9 -Fr.- G

15-Ray Gallegos -6-2 -Jr.- G

24-Dylan Talley -6-5 -Sr.- G

13-Brandon Ubel -6-10-Sr.- F

32-Andre Almeida-6-11-Sr.- C

Ohio St (10-2)

Evan Ravenel, F 6-8 260 SR

Deshaun Thomas, F 6-7 225 JR

Aaron Craft, G 6-2 190 JR

Lenzelle Smith, Jr., G 6-4 205 JR

Sam Thompson, F 6-7 190 SO

Player to watch; Deshaun Thomas

While Aaron Craft will spend all night harassing and stealing the ball away from whomever gets to handle the ball for Nebraska it's junior Deshaun Thomas who was one of the three B1G members to named a pre-season All-American. Thomas is averaging nearly 20 ppg and his inside-outside game is a matchup nightmare. He's currently leading the team in minutes, scoring, and rebounds. Doubling Thomas means leaving open one of his fairly capable teammates and doesn't necessarily mean you can stop him.

Get ready for Ugly

The first B1G game of the Tim Miles era is against an Ohio State team with a legitimate shot to return to the Final Four after losing William Buford and Jared Sullinger, Besides All-American DeShaun Thomas' nearly 20 ppg, they have one of the best on-ball defenders in the country in Aaron Craft. It might not be out of the realm of possibilities for Craft to hold whomever he's guarding to less points than turnovers.

Ohio State is statistically one of the best teams in the nation in many categories. They limit your possessions by dominating the boards on both ends, they average only 10 turnovers per game, and lead the nation in steal %. In other words, assuming you can get the ball down the court to even attempt a shot, don't count on many second chances should you miss.

Mike Peltz is out for this one and his ball handling ability will be missed. Nebraska needs a huge game from Ray Gallegos curling around to hit 3s along with Ubel and Andre to keep this game to a respectable loss as Ohio State has been showing up for games all season long. Expect Craft to demolish Dylan Talley and hope that Craft instead spends his time trying to keep Benny Parker from scoring. This should be relatively low scoring as the Huskers should once again ugly up this game and possibly hold an opponent to a season low. We haven't loss by less than 30 to Ohio State since becoming a member of the B1G so let's try to top that.

Prediction: Ohio St 72 - Nebraska 49