After suffering a loss at Purdue, IU closes out its regular season Saturday at Ohio State as both the Hoosiers and Buckeyes attempt to improve their seeding for the Big Ten Tournament.
IU has lost eight of its last 10 games and lost six straight road games. Following the loss to Purdue, IU Coach Tom Crean talked about how difficult this stretch has been on everyone.
“I cannot tell you how bad it hurts as a human being, as a leader of them for them not to get the results a lot of times for the work that they put in,” Crean said. “It hurts everybody.”
Ohio State enters the matchup 17-13 overall and 7-10 in the Big Ten, while IU sits at 16-14 and 6-11, respectively. The Buckeyes have won two games in a row to knock off Wisconsin and Penn State.
Junior forward Jae’Sean Tate is Ohio State’s leading scorer and averages 14.0 points per game. Tate shoots 54.5 percent from the field, but struggles from beyond the arc as he has only made eight of 34 attempted 3-pointers all season.
The only other Buckeye to start all 30 games this season besides Tate is senior forward Marc Loving, who averages 12.5 points per game and shoots 38 percent from three.
Ohio State struggles taking care of the ball, as the Buckeyes turn it over on 19.3 percent of possessions, good for 222nd in the nation. IU has a persistent turnover problem as well and had 11 turnovers in the first half against Purdue, who was ranked 165th.
“We’ve just got to a better job of being fundamentally sound,” junior guard Josh Newkirk said after the game. “Just pivoting, passing, making the right plays, reading the defense.”
While junior forward Tim Priller has not played much so far this season, he has played in both of IU’s last two games and registered a career-high six points in five minutes against Purdue.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Priller said. “Every time I go out there, I’m going to fight as hard as I can for my teammates.”
Priller joins junior forward Freddie McSwain Jr. as forwards getting more minutes late in the season. McSwain picked up his first career start against Purdue and tied his career-high with eight points.
Even with the season spiraling the past month, Crean said he is still proud of his team, and their fight and resolve in particular.
"Every day in practice, you would not be able to tell that we had so many tough losses,” Crean said. “They have tremendous resiliency, which is going to carry them a long, long way in life if they never lose that.”
