Three Buckeyes to crack open for Indiana basketball on Saturday night
Indiana basketball now streaks into Bloomington with four straight wins and has to turn its focus to Ohio State on Saturday night. Who are the Buckeyes?
Both Ohio State and Indiana basketball are kind of playing opposite roles right now in the Big Ten and in college hoops.
The Buckeyes have lost six of their last seven games and have not won a road game since beating Northwestern on January 1. Failing to reach 70 points in five of their last six losses, Ohio State is looking for any positivity as they head into a tough stretch of conference games with Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan next up.
The Hoosiers, on the other hand, have won four straight games after losing three straight to begin 2023, and have not allowed any teams during this four-game winning streak to reach 70 or more points.
What will give on Saturday night in Bloomington? Do the Buckeyes find their offense or does the Indiana defense hold strong at home?
Aside from my three Buckeyes listed below, the Hoosiers still need to pay attention to Zed Key, a junior big man that can impact the game in many ways and has scored in double digits in 14 of his 19 games played this season.
Here are my three key Ohio State Buckeyes that the Hoosiers need to crack open prior to Saturday’s matchup in Bloomington:
Trending. Race Thompson's last hometown college game. light
Three Buckeyes for Indiana basketball on Saturday:
3. Sean McNeil – Senior Guard – #4
2022-23 stats: 20 GP, 28.9 MIN, 9.8 PPG, 1.9 3PM, 40.7 3P%, 88.5 FT%
The senior transfer from West Virginia has come to Columbus and given Chris Holtmann a catch-and-shoot guy that his team desperately needed.
McNeil is shooting a career-best 40.7 percent from beyond the arc and 91 of his 158 attempted shots from the field this season have come from three-point range.
Think back to the Penn State game for a minute. McNeil needs to be treated as Seth Lundy/Andrew Funk, but in a much better way, like the way the Hoosiers have been guarding during this four-game winning streak.
McNeil has hit two or more three-pointers in eight of his last 10 games and is shooting 47.7 percent from three-point land over his last 10 games. It’s fair to say that he’s a guy that Trey Galloway or Jalen Hood-Schifino cannot leave for a second.
If we leave McNeil open, he will kill us from deep. If we run him off the three-point line, he will have to make plays for others, which is not a strength of his.