Game Time: 8:00 PM ET, Thursday, January 27th, 2022

Venue: Williams Arena, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Where to Watch:  ESPN

 

DraftKings Sportsbook:  NL

Caesars:  Spread: NL

VegasInsider:  Spread: Ohio State -6; O/U 138.5

WynnBet: Spread: NL

Ohio State: 5-2 conf, 12-4 overall (Big 10)

Minnesota: 2-5 conf, 11-5 overall (Big 10)

The Ohio State Buckeyes will play the Minnesota Golden Gophers in men’s basketball for the 154th time.  The Buckeyes are dominating that series 88-60 and it looks like they may go to 89. Ohio State is the #16 team in the AP polls… Minnesota is scraping the bottom of the Big 10 barrel. Bullet points aside, this is a game that will come down to the numbers to see if Ohio State will cover the spread or not… in order to make you money.

The Buckeyes are not a super dominant college basketball team.  They have already lost to the Wisconsin Badgers and the Indiana Hoosiers.  Over their last ten games they have 8 wins.  They are on a two game win streak since that Wisconsin loss.  The thing to remember here is that Ohio State has beat Penn State twice this season. Forward E.J. Liddell is leading the Buckeyes in scoring with 19.4 ppg.  He is a 6’7 powerhouse that has a lot of help… PG Jamari Wheeler is a 5th year guy who played his first 4 at Penn State… Jamari joined the Buckeyes in the ultimate “if you can’t beat them join them” moment.  

The Minnesota Golden Gophers have lost 4 of their last 5 games.  They are only 5-5 in their last ten games… So basically as soon as conference play began and Minnesota had to leave the barely D-1 schools behind to play real competition they collapsed.  They have lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Michigan State Spartans, the Indiana Hoosiers, the Illinois Fighting Illini, and the Spartan again way back on December 8th.  You may wonder… Aren’t those teams all good?... The answer is yes, Minnesota is not. Minnesota is led by Forward James Battle in scoring and Big man Forward Eric Curry holds down the defensive responsibilities… but both those guys are Questionable with nagging injuries for this game… along with a couple guards. 

WAYNE found a huge oddsmaker's mistake on an underdog earlier this week which won outright. This is its cousin. A small FAVORITE that will win by 10 points OVER YOUR SPREAD. A HUGE ODDSMAKER MISTAKE. On a 75% winning streak. Go Get it!!  Get Wayne Root’s pick!!  It's available right now at the Shop Picks page, where you can find all of the Best Bets from our champion sports handicappers. All your NCAA basketball needs for the entire college basketball season!

OSU is 12-4 on the season, but 7-9 ATS.  They have logged 10 Overs and 6 Unders.  They are 2-3 in road games.

Minn is 11-5 on the season, but 8-7-1 ATS.  They have notched 10 Overs and 6 Unders.  They are 6-3 in home games.

OSU is 95th in scoring with 75.1 ppg, 165th in rebounds with 33 per game, and 76th in AST/To ratio with 1.2. They are shooting 22nd in FG%, 23rd in 3PT%, and 51st in FT% (those are real good shooting rankings).  On defense they are average at 144th while allowing 67.4 ppg from opponents.

Minn is 228th in scoring with 69.6 ppg, 330th in rebounds with 28.8 per game, and 55th in AST/TO ratio with 1.3.  They are 103rd in FG%, 89th in 3PT%, and 209th in FT%.  They are 111th on defense while allowing 66.3 ppg from opponents.

Our prediction for Thursday, January 27th is…  Buckeyes 81 - Golden Gophers 67

The Buckeyes should roll the Gophers.  The numbers aren’t even close.  In college basketball sometimes the favorite plays down to the competition and fails to cover, happy to get the win.  In this case the Gophers are not only outmatched, but they are dinged up.

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Ohio State is 21-16 ATS versus Minn since 1997.

Minn is 10-7 ATS versus Ohio State at Minnesota since 1997.

Minny is 2-0 ATS versus Ohio State at Minny over the last 3 seasons.

Ohio State: G Jamari Wheeler (undisclosed) Quest ** G Meechie Johnson Jr (face) Quest

Minnesota: F E. Curry (ankle) Out ** F J. Battle (undisclosed) Quest ** G E. Stephens (undisclosed) Quest ** G W Ramberg (hand) Quest

Ohio State: G Jamari Wheeler, F Justin Ahrens, G Malaki Branham, F EJ Liddell, F Zed Key 

Minnesota: G Payton Willis, G Luke Loewe, G Sean Sutherlin, F Charlie Daniels, F Treyton Thompson

Ohio State

Points: E.J Liddell 19.4

Assists: Jamari Wheeler 3.8

Rebounds: E.J. Lidell 7.3

Steals: Jamari Wheeler 1.6

Blocks: E.J Liddell 2.8

Minnesota

Points: Jamison Battle 18

Assists: Payton Willis 3.9

Rebounds: Eric Curry 6.8

Steals: Payton Willis 1.8

Blocks: Eric Curry 0.8

Ohio State: Chris Holtmann.  Coach Holtmann has been at Ohio State since 2017.  He came over from Butler and his head coaching record is 213-133.  He makes $3 million a year to coach the greatest game on earth.

Minnesota: Ben Johnson.  Coach Johnson is a a first year head coach… having come over from being an assistant at Xavier.  We will know more about his program once he has had 2-3 years of recruiting.  I bet he does not make $3 Mil… yet.  Keep on pushing coach.