What’s at stake when Ohio State goes to Indiana on senior day? Plenty, for both teams
Saturday afternoon’s regular-season finale between Ohio State and Indiana will have some extra juice.
Indiana’s senior day already promised to be a marquee event from the moment the Hoosiers announced that it was parting ways with coach Mike Woodson at the end of the season, making the game against the Buckeyes the final time the program alumnus and former player will coach at Assembly Hall. Along the way, both teams have played their way onto the NCAA Tournament bubble and could use another win to further solidify their cases for inclusion.
Now, the game will also determine which of the two teams earns a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Sporting identical 9-10 records in league play, Ohio State and Indiana are tied for ninth place in the Big Ten standings. Indiana is 18-12 overall, Ohio State is 17-13 and the Hoosiers won in Columbus earlier this year.
In the 15-team conference tournament, the league’s top nine teams earn first-round byes and avoid Wednesday’s opening round of games. As a result, whichever team scores more points than the other Saturday will earn the No. 9 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and begin postseason play next Thursday at noon against the No. 8 seed inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The loser will finish with the No. 10 seed and face the No. 15 seed at 6 p.m. Wednesday. So while the stakes are high, Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said the Buckeyes aren’t shying away from them.
“It’s obviously a really tough environment to play in, but we’ve shown we can handle it,” he said after Tuesday night’s 116-114 double-overtime win against Nebraska. “With how difficult this league is, the quality of opponent night in and night out, I find it really hard to believe that everybody’s season is on the line every single game. That’s not to diminish how important the game is. I haven’t shied away from that. I want our guys to live in the moment, prepare well, put our best foot forward. That’s the most important thing.”
By beating the Cornhuskers, the Buckeyes kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive. A win at Indiana would add one more Quad 1 victory to the resume and might be enough to clinch a spot in March Madness regardless of how the Big Ten Tournament goes, but a loss might require at least a win or two in Indianapolis to stay afloat.
Most bracket projections won’t update until Friday, but CBS’ Jerry Palm’s updated bracket Wednesday moved the Buckeyes to the third team among the last four in and forecasted a First Four game in Dayton against fellow No. 11 seed Boise State. Indiana is listed as a No. 10 seed while Nebraska is third among the first four teams out.
Palm has 10 Big Ten teams in his projected field, including Ohio State.
“This league deserves a lot of teams it the tournament,” Diebler said. “It does. If you’re hovering close to .500 in this league, you’ve walked away with some impressive wins. We should be having the max of that (type of resume) in the tournament because the quality of teams, quality of wins, quality of wins our league had outside of the Big Ten.”