Basketball

Opponent: Ohio State

Where: WVU Coliseum (14,000)

Date, Time: Saturday, 2:05 p.m. ET

TV: CBS (announcers Kevin Harlan and Bill Raftery).

Records, Rankings: West Virginia 14-3, No. 11 AP, No. 12 Coaches; Ohio State 14-5, No. 21 AP, No. 25 Coaches.

RPI Rankings (from collegerpi.com): West Virginia 8, Ohio State 43.

Key Players: West Virginia – 6-foot-7 senior F Da’Sean Butler (15.8 points per game, 6.4 rebounds per game, 3.4 assists per game); 6-8 sophomore F Kevin Jones (14.9 ppg, 7.7 rpg); 6-9 sophomore F Devin Ebanks (11.6 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 2.7 apg); 6-2 sophomore G Darryl Bryant (10.5 ppg, 3.4 apg); 6-4 junior G Casey Mitchell (5.2 ppg, 1.5 rpg); 6-5 freshman G Dalton Pepper (5.1 ppg); 6-7 senior F Wellington Smith (4.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg); 6-7 junior F John Flowers (3.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg).

* Ohio State –  6-7 junior G Evan Turner (18.6 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 5.5 apg); 6-6 junior G Jon Diebler (13.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 1.9 apg); 6-5 sophomore G William Buford (13.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 3.2 apg; 6-5 junior F David Lighty (13 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1.8 steals per game); 6-8 junior C Dallas Lauderdale (7.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.3 blocks per game); 6-2 senior G Jeremie Simmons (7 ppg, 1 apg); 6-1 senior G P.J. Hill (4.4 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.7 apg); 6-9 senior F Kyle Madsen (2.2 ppg, 1.9 rpg).

Key Matchup: Ohio State has more than held its own in the rebounding department lately, but West Virginia will bring the kind of frontcourt that the Buckeyes have not seen since they played North Carolina. If they can just get a stalemate on the boards on Saturday, it will be a pseudo-victory. Turner is by far OSU’s best rebounder and he will need to do his usual damage. (And how often is a point guard averaging nearly 10 rebounds per game? Never. Well, until Turner came around. And yes, he’s not exactly the prototypical point guard.) But beyond that, the Buckeyes need key contributions on the glass from Lauderdale, Lighty and Buford. I would say Diebler too, but the ship has sailed in terms of him ever being a good rebounder. But that’s not his role anyway. He is the spot-up shooter on the team and is getting his job done (shoots a team-best 45 percent from 3-point range). But if Turner, Lauderdale and at least one other player do a quality job on the boards, OSU should be able to neutralize the one big advantage that West Virginia appears to have in this matchup.

Chess Match: It will be interesting to see how WVU decides to defend Turner, who is a serious candidate to win the Naismith Award as the nation’s most valuable player. Will Huggins throw some junk defenses at the Buckeyes? Perhaps, but he’ll likely see how things develop early in the game before he does anything drastic. But no question Huggins has a few tricks up his sleeve as he tries to slow down Turner. … As for Ohio State’s defense, man-to-man has been the calling card of late and that’s expected to continue against West Virginia. The Buckeyes have four players in their starting lineup that are relatively the same size and it enables them to switch on screens without allowing mismatches. Early in the season, they weren’t sure which direction they wanted to go defensively. However, head coach Thad Matta has returned to his man-to-man roots and the decision has paid off.

Opponent Fun Fact: Matta is in his sixth season at OSU and has established himself as the best coach in school history in terms of winning percentage. Matta has an overall winning percentage of .734 (141-51) after 192 games at OSU. That is the highest mark among the 11 head coaches in the history of the Ohio State men's basketball program with three or more seasons. … Also, Matta’s 59-32 record (.648) in Big Ten regular-season play has produced the highest winning percentage compared to any previous OSU coach. … Fred Taylor (1959-76) is second in both overall win percentage (.653/297-158) and Big Ten win percentage (.608/158-102) in 18 seasons. Taylor led OSU to the 1960 national championship and that team will be honored at halftime of the Minnesota game on Jan. 31. Expected to attend are three-time All-American and three-time Big Ten Player of the Year Jerry Lucas, two-time All-Big Ten selection and NBA Hall of Famer John Havlicek, as well as former Army, Indiana and Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight who is the all-time leader in coaching victories with 902.

OSU-WVU series: The Buckeyes lead the all-time series 9-6, including 3-2 in Morgantown. However, the Mountaineers have won six of the last seven meetings, including a 76-48 shellacking of OSU in Columbus last season.

What’s At Stake: It’s looking more and more like the Buckeyes will qualify for the NCAA Tournament, the only question is how high of a seed they will get. A win at West Virginia would be a signature victory – right up there with the upset at Purdue – and would look great on the resume come tourney time. And a win over the Mountaineers would just add to the avalanche of momentum that OSU has gained the last two weeks. For WVU, after losing to one Big 0 opponent already in Purdue, thisis a virtual must-win in terms of keeping hopes for a No. 1 seed.

Turner on the revenge factor after getting blown out last year: “We definitely want a shot to redeem ourselves. Last year was just crazy and I’m still trying to figure out what happened. But definitely that’s one game that I’ve had in the back of my head and we definitely want another opportunity. But they’re a good team and we just want to test ourselves once again.”

Turner on whether he watched the film of last year’s game this week: “I usually go back and watch games or whatnot, but I just think the key thing was they came out and popped us. Nothing about how they executed or anything else, I just think they gave us a good butt-whoppin’ and we didn’t really retaliate or anything like that. So, you don’t really have to go back and watch and say, ‘Maybe we could have done this.’ There wasn’t anything we could have done; they just popped us. They came out hitting the boards, they intimidated us, they stopped us from doing what we’re supposed to do. We just can’t let that happen. It’s a toughness thing and it’s about drawing a line and I think that’s the biggest thing you can really do versus them.”

Prediction: West Virginia 72, Ohio State 68 (The Revenge factor will be big and the Buckeyes will keep it close, but home-court advantage and WVU’s rebounding ability will prove to be the difference.)

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