After three-straight tune-up games, the Buckeyes will welcome in the fighting Jeff Capel’s for an afternoon contest on Friday.
After three-straight wins of 30-plus points, the Ohio State Buckeyes (5-1 overall, 4-0 at home) will welcome in the Pittsburgh Panthers (6-1 overall, 0-0 away) on Friday.
Pittsburgh has been a pleasant surprise thus far this season, taking down West Virginia and LSU by double-digits. The Panthers’ one loss came last weekend to Wisconsin, an 81-75 battle that the Panthers almost won.
Ohio State will look to get another quality win early in the season and keep its home winning streak alive. Ohio State leads the all-time series 15-11 and is 6-5 at home. The last time these two programs met was in 2002, resulting in a 69-49 Pitt victory. The Panthers have won the last two meetings against Ohio State.
Pitt is averaging 84.3 points per game while shooting 50.2 percent from the field.
Preview
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Ishmael Leggett leads the Panthers with 18.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, shooting 56.6 percent from the field and 34.6 percent from three-point range. Leggett is one of seven guards in the NCAA and the only guard from a power conference team averaging at least 18.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game for the season.
Jaland Lowe is the Panthers’ Swiss army knife, averaging 15.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game. However, Lowe is only shooting 38.4 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from three-point range.
Junior forward Cameron Corhen is averaging 13.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-10 junior is one of the most efficient players in the country, shooting 70.7 percent from the field while averaging 29.4 minutes.
Houston transfer guard Damian Dunn is averaging 11.1 points per game, but he left the Wisconsin game early in the first half with an injury and had to undergo thumb surgery. He is out for this game and will miss the next six weeks.
Guillermo Diaz Graham — one half of the Diaz Graham twins — is averaging 8.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game as the team’s leading rebounder, while Zach Austin is averaging 6.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game.
Talented freshman guard Brandin Cummings is averaging 5.0 points per game in 15.9 minutes, but he should see more time and opportunities with the injury to Dunn.
For the Buckeyes, junior point guard Bruce Thornton and freshman guard John Mobley Jr. lead the team with 15.2 points per game each. Thornton is also averaging 5.8 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game.
Thornton is one of the most reliable guards in the country, and is fifth in the nation with a 7.20 assist/turnover ratio through the first six games. He is also shooting 57.4 percent from the field and 52.2 percent from three-point range. Mobley is one of the top shooters in the country to this point, shooting 59.4 percent from three.
Sophomore forward Devin Royal is averaging 11.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, while senior guard Meechie Johnson is averaging 10.8 points per contest and is starting to settle in after a rocky start to the season.
Micah Parrish is averaging 10.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists. Evan Mahaffey is averaging 5.2 points and 4.7 rebounds, while Duke transfer Sean Stewart is averaging 4.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
Kentucky transfer center Aaron Bradshaw is averaging 7.8 points and 4.5 rebounds. However, he has missed the last two games and is currently away from the team. The timeline for his return is unknown as he goes through a “university process” per the team.
As a team, the Buckeyes are shooting 43.4 percent from three-point range, which is seventh in the country among FBS teams.
These teams are rated almost identically in KenPom, with the Buckeyes ranked No. 17 overall, No. 24 on offense and No. 20 on defense. Pittsburgh is No. 14 overall on KenPom, No. 22 on offense and No. 19 on defense.
Prediction
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As the analytics and metrics suggest, this will be a close and back-and-forth ball game. Pittsburgh and Ohio State are both talented offenses, and this should be a high-scoring game.
The Panthers will have to adjust without Damian Dunn for the first time, but he only played two minutes in the Wisconsin game, so they have had a test run without him.
It will be interesting to see how the Buckeyes handle the frontcourt with no Aaron Bradshaw. In the last game, Jake Diebler and the coaching staff went with Sean Stewart at the center position, and Devin Royal got the start at the four.
Royal played 24 minutes, and Evan Mahaffey played 22 minutes off the bench. They will likely stick with this small ball lineup moving forward, but we will see if they want to play more Austin Parks or Ivan Njegovan to add some height and physicality to the rotation and lineup.
I think the Buckeyes win in a high scoring game behind a season-best performance from Meechie Johnson and Sean Stewart.
ESPN BPI: Ohio State 66.9%
Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
TV: Peacock
LGHL score prediction: Ohio State 84, Pittsburgh 78