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#2 The Ohio State University vs. #22 West Virginia, Sunday, Dec 29 @ 12:00 PM, FS1 (Cleveland, OH)

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL TALK | NBC SPORTS
No. 22 WEST VIRGINIA at No. 2 OHIO STATE, Sun. 12:00 p.m. (FS1)

KENPOM: Ohio State 72, West Virginia 65
TORVIK: Ohio State 70, West Virginia 66
HASLAMETRICS: Ohio State 74, West Virginia 60

West Virginia has quietly put together a pretty impressive resume this season. They sit at 10-1 overall with wins over Pitt, Northern Iowa, Wichita State and Rhode Island, all of which are top 100 wins on KenPom. They are top 25 in the AP Poll and on KenPom.

The strength of this team is their frontcourt, where Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver are both threats to go for a double-double on a nightly basis. They pound the offensive glass, they erase the paint defensively and they are as good as anyone in the country at running opponents off of the three-point line.

This matters in this matchup, because the Buckeyes are a team that ideally wants to have four shooters on the floor surrounding Kaleb Wesson, who also happens to be a 46 percent three-point shooter. The trouble this causes is that this will pull one of their big men away from the bucket, and they can do it even if they are forced to play with Wesson and Kyle Young for the majority of the game.

BEST BET: Without knowing what the line is this is tough to project. If it is Ohio State (-4), as Torvik projects, then the value is on Ohio State. If it’s West Virginia (+14), as Haslam projects, then the value is on the Mountaineers. And if it is Ohio State (-7), than I’d lean the Buckeyes, but it will probably be a stay-away for me.
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think osu -7ish is the accurate line.
 
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Hstead said:
I feel like this is a good matchup for us now that we have two guys that can get it up the floor vs Huggins' pressure. We should be able to handle their press and we are faster and more athletic on the defensive end. I see us taking the Mountaineers to the woodshed.
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don't think this is a pressing wvu team. their strength is in the frontcourt, and their guards have a tendency not to give their all. generally a pressing team will have a high turnover rate defense and a high free throw rate defense (i.e., turn you over a lot and give up a lot of free throws). that was 2015-18 wvu. this year's team, however, is 139th in trd and 245th in ftrd, which is actually higher than other years. they certainly get up in your grill to make you uncomfortable, but i'll be a little surprised if we see them before the halfcourt line -- at least not until the second half if the game is close or we're ahead. i think it would play to our advantage to play press virginia... and i think huggins knows that.

all in all, i think wvu is a better version of kentucky. they shoot poorly like uk does, which wasn't so much the case in our game, but their strength is the frontcourt while uk's was the backcourt. and as with my expectations of the uk game, i think osu will win if we limit our turnovers and hit the defensive boards. wvu lives on the glass. i hope we take wvu to the woodshed, but i think this will be our toughest game of the season so far. i'm excluding the cincy game since the first half had less to do with uc and more to do with opening ugliness. and i'm also excluding minny because that was tough only in the sense that it was never close.

edit: if we don't shoot over 34% from three, i don't think we win, especially if kaleb is not hitting from outside. our best weapon will likely be kaleb pulling tshiebwe and culver outside. could see ho1tmann going small-ball for a good chunk of the game. osu's guards versus wvu's bigs. battle of wills between ho1t and huggy.
 
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