Ohio State Men’s Basketball Prepared For Big Ten Test Against No. 13 Illinois

Ohio State men’s basketball has gotten off to a good start with a 7-1 record, which most recently includes a road Big Ten win over Northwestern.

On Tuesday, the Buckeyes will face their biggest test of the season when they host No. 13 Illinois at Value City Arena for a 7:30 tipoff. The Fighting Illini are off to a 7-2 start with wins over No. 16 Texas Tech and No. 20 Tennessee. Their only two losses have been to No. 12 Alabama and No. 5 UConn.

Head coach Jake Diebler is ready for the test.

“It’s an early, big-time opportunity to go up against Big Ten size, but also a high, high-level opponent,” he said. “It’s great that we have a chance for that level of opportunity at home.”

One of Illinois’ strength is the size it has on the roster. Junior guard Andrej Stojakovic is the second-leading scorer on the team and stands 6-7 while freshman forward David Mirkovic and Tomislav Ivisic are two more players who average double-digit points while standing 6-9 and 7-1, respectively.

Diebler understands the unique challenge that the Illini’s size will present in the game.

“It’s part of how we constructed this roster, to have versatility going against different teams,” Diebler said. “This is a game where, although we had some success against them last year by being smaller at times, we’re going to also have to play bigger at times.”

Ohio State has been playing bigger already this season with junior forward Devin Royal starting at the three position, with senior forward Brandon Noel and senior center Christoph Tilly as the big men, both of whom have the ability to play on the perimeter.

Diebler said that it’s a possibility that Tilly (7-0) and sophomore center Ivan Njegovan (7-2) could get on the floor at the same time against the Illini, but admitted that its hard to tell how well that lineup works in practice since there are no other big men for them to match up against on the other side of the floor.

With Illinois’ size, Diebler said he’s also making it a point to focus on rebounding in this game since the Illini have been so good at it this year. They have outrebounded opposing teams by 10.8 boards per game through nine contests, while the Buckeyes are at 8.4 per game. However, in the three power conference games OSU has played in, it has been outrebounded in each of those contests by an average of 4.7 per game.

“They’re an elite rebounding team,” Diebler said. “It’s an area for us where we’ve improved, but it’s going to be a big part of the game. They have a lot of guys capable of having a big night (on the boards). We have to have a great connection defensively, but we have to finish plays. It’s going to be critical to the game.”