On Tuesday night, February 3, the Ohio State Buckeyes (15-5, 5-4) will take on the #12/13 Purdue Boilermakers (17-4, 6-2) in a Big Ten Conference game at Value City Arena (7 p.m., ESPN). The game is big for both teams as Purdue has a chance to tie Michigan State for first place in the conference and the Buckeyes could notch another quality win for their tournament resume, as well as improve their conference record.

In their last game, Purdue stomped on Michigan 67-49 in West Lafayette. E’Twaun Moore lead the Boilermakers in that game with 17 points and is their leading scorer on the season, averaging 14.3 points per game. Matt Painter’s squad is not limited to Moore though, as Robbie Hummel (12.9 ppg 7.5 rpg), JaJuan Johnson (12.5 ppg 5.8 rpg), Keaton Grant (7.9 ppg), Nemanja Calasan (7.3 ppg 3.6 rpg), Marcus Green (5.7 ppg 4.4 rpg), Lewis Jackson (5.5 ppg), and Chris Kramer (4.6 ppg 2.6 rpg 2.4 apg) round out a more than stellar rotation for the Black and Gold. Purdue is young, fast, big, and athletic and they do a good job of putting teams away once they get ahead. Their weakness comes in the assist to turnover category where as a team their ratio is 15.6 to 12.7 (1.2 to 1) assists to turnovers on the season. If the Buckeyes can run their trap press without getting beat too often, they can take advantage of this weakness. Purdue does shoot 36.5% from behind the arc, so OSU better not catch itself out of position too often.

Looking at the Bucks, they are coming off two wins that were big, but were also games that they were supposed to win at home against Michigan and on the road against Indiana. This week they face Purdue and Minnesota at home, but both games will be extremely tough. This Purdue team will be a huge test for the young Bucks, as the second half of the conference slate begins and OSU finds itself in the middle of the pack at 5-4 in the conference. The Buckeyes have played inconsistently all year and will need to sure up their rebounding, holes in their match-up zone defense, turnover problem, and consistent flow on the offensive end of the floor. They will need Evan Turner, Jeremie Simmons, William Buford, and Jon Diebler to step up like they did in Bloomington, but will also need big men BJ Mullens and Dallas Lauderdale to contribute on the inside if they want to beat Purdue.

I think the Bucks will put it together for this game and come up with a 73-67 victory over the Boilermakers. This Scarlet Fever crowd can only help OSU’s chances and a win on their home court against a good Purdue team will go a long way come March. I think BJ Mullens will have a big game for OSU, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Evan Turner will continue his stellar play with 22 points and William Buford will chip in with 16. The Bucks will cause Purdue to turn the ball over too often and will hit free throws down the stretch to lock up this win.