Ohio State vs. Iowa
7 TONIGHT
Carver-Hawkeye Arena; Iowa City, Iowa ESPNU WBNS-FM (97.1)
Ohio State 11-4, 2-0 Big Ten; Iowa 9-7, 0-3
With a win, Chris Holtmann would become the first Ohio State coach to win his first three Big Ten games. … Although he has been limited in practice, Buckeyes senior Jae’Sean Tate is expected to play as he deals with a left shoulder sprain suffered in practice a week ago. … Iowa forward Luka Garza is the reigning Big Ten freshman of the week after scoring 25 points in only 16 minutes in a Dec. 29 win against Northern Illinois. He’s won the award twice. G C.J. Jackson, 6-1, Jr., 13.6 G Kam Williams, 6-2, Sr., 7.9 G Jae’Sean Tate, 6-4, Sr., 12.5 F Keita Bates-Diop, 6-7, Jr., 18.7 C Kaleb Wesson, 6-9, Fr., 11.9
C Potter, 6-9, So., 4.0; G Jallow, 6-5, Fr., 3.8; G Dakich, 6-2, Gr., 3.3; F Wesson, 6-6, So., 2.3; F Young, 6-8, Fr., 2.2 G Jordan Bohannon, 6-0, So., 11.6 G Isaiah Moss, 6-5, Jr., 11.6 F Jack Nunge, 6-11, Fr., 7.9 F Nicholas Baer, 6-7, Jr., 5.0 C Tyler Cook, 6-9, So., 14.8
F Garza, 6-11, Fr., 10.1; F Pemsl, 6-8, So., 6.5; G Dailey, 6-7, So., 5.9; G Ellingson, 6-4, Jr., 3.9
“There’s also the idea of, ‘Hey, don’t foul their better shooters,’ ” Holtmann said. “Offensively, the same way is, can you get your better free throw shooters to the free-throw line?”
In that vein, Holtmann said Bates-Diop needs to be better at driving and drawing fouls, while also pointing out that Jae’Sean Tate (50.0 percent this year, 53.8 percent for his career) needs to shoot better. But overall, the Buckeyes feel better about their chances in close games than in the recent past because of their freethrow shooting.
“You see it all the time (where) teams lose games because it comes down to free throws,” Tate said. “In the Big Ten, a lot of these games come down to one or two possessions or one or two points.”