Indiana vs. Ohio State: Full Homersota Preview

The place: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

The teams: THE Ohio Poisonous Bucknuts (aka the Ohio State Buckeyes), and your Indiana Hoosiers!

What's at stake: For Ohio State, as with Iowa, positioning. For Indiana, continuing to build momentum, and maybe an outside look at the bubble.

What does Vegas say: Opened Ohio State -1.5, is up to -2 or -2.5 as of this writing.

What does Brutus say:

via www.buckeye50.com

(Not the face!)

The current mood of IU fans right now, judging solely by the iubb hashtag: Amusement at how Kentucky has fared this year, with a few people hoping for an NIT matchup against them in Assembly Hall.

How important is this game on the usual scale: 9.5

How important is this game in one word: Pretty

Over/under number of nets Coach Crean would cut down if we win this game: 1.5

My completely biased, barely researched analysis: Ohio State is coming in off a shocking season sweep by Penn State. Indiana is coming in off a reasonably surprising upset of Iowa. Trying to predict how Indiana will react to this circumstance stopped being valid weeks ago, so I'm not gonna try. Ohio State has been consistent on their last two back-to-back road trips, getting swept in the first and sweeping the second. Also, ranked teams not named Michigan State have struggled in Assembly Hall this year, so that may continue to be a good omen for the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers would love to have Will Sheehey firing on all cylinders for the second game in a row, and if Yogi and Noah could also get their scoring back on pace, that would be great.

Reasonable score prediction: Ohio State 73, Indiana 71

FULL HOMERSOTA prediction: Indiana 78, Ohio State 71