The Ohio State Buckeyes (13-6, 3-5) visit the No. 5 Michigan Wolverines (19-1, 8-1) for a 9:05 pm tip-off Tuesday evening. The Buckeyes come into this game following a 70-60 win at Nebraska. Michigan, meanwhile, comes into tonight’s contest following a 23-point win at Indiana last Friday. The Wolverines’ lone loss came on January 19 in a 64-54 defeat at Wisconsin.
Opening Tip
Who: Ohio State at Michigan
What: Men’s Basketball
Where: Ann Arbor, MI — Crisler Arena
When: 9:05 pm (ESPN2)
Why: Because Michigan is a basketball school.
Line: Michigan -9
The Buckeyes
Overall 
Big Ten Play
Three-Point Territory
+ Ohio State leads the all-time series vs. the Wolverines 97-77. The Buckeyes are 37-47 in Ann Arbor, 56-27 in Columbus and own a 4-2 advantage in games played on neutral courts. When the Wolverines are ranked among the Associated Press Top 25, Ohio State is 15-27 in the series. C.J. Jackson and Andre Wesson each have faced the Wolverines the most among those on the current Ohio State roster, each with three games played. Jackson averages a team-high 9.3 points a game in the series to go with 5.3 rebounds a contest. Kaleb Wesson averaged 8.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in a pair of meetings a season ago against the Wolverines. The Buckeyes have won three of the last four and four of the last six games in the series.
+ Luther Muhammad scored a career-high 24 points the last time out against Nebraska. Muhammad grabbed six boards in the contest, tying his career high. The freshman finished 3-for-4 from 3-point range and made a career-high seven free throws on eight attempts. He added three steals and two assists for the Buckeyes.
+ The starting five against Nebraska of C.J. Jackson, Musa Jallow, Luther Muhammad, Andre Wesson and Kaleb Wesson is the Buckeyes’ seventh unique lineup of the season.
The Michigan Wolverines
What You Should Know
+ Michigan is ranked No. 5 by the Associated Press and No. 5 by the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. Overall, U-M is one of four Big Ten teams among the nation’s top 25 — Michigan State (No. 6/8), Purdue (No. 17/18), Maryland (No. 21/24) and Wisconsin (No. 24/23). There are three additional Big Ten team receiving national votes — Iowa (No. 31/25), Nebraska (No. 36/nr) and Minnesota (No. 39/nr). Michigan has reached as high as the No. 2 (AP) and No. 4 (Coaches) spots this season. In fact, the Wolverines held those positions for four straight weeks.
+ Michigan has won its last 19 straight games at Crisler Center, which is currently the third best stretch in program history. During a stretch of games spanning two seasons — 1984-85 to 1985-86 — the Wolverines posted a program best 24 straight wins.
+ The Wolverines are 31-1 in their last 32 games at Crisler Center. The lone home setback was a 70-69 win by No. 5/7 Purdue (Jan. 9, 2018) after the Boilermakers Isaac Haas made a free throw with four seconds left to defeat the Wolverines in the final seconds. Michigan is 43-4 over the last three seasons at Crisler Center. The four losses are to Virginia Tech (73-70, Nov. 30, 2016) in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge; Maryland (77-70, Jan. 7, 2017); Ohio State (70-66, Feb. 4, 2017) and Purdue (70-69, Jan. 9, 2018).
+ Ignas Brazdeikis is primarily a right-handed person. However, he shoots and drives as a lefty in games. Moreover as the season has progresses, his ambidextrous ability to score, shoot and pass has made him even more dangerous as you really don’t know where he will attack. With is immediate impact as a freshman, Brazdeikis was named to the Wooden Awards Midseason Top 25 for Player of the Year honor. He was one of five freshmen on the listing and one of seven players from the Big Ten — Purdue’s Carsen Edwards, Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ, Indiana’s Romeo Langford, Minnesota’s Jordan Murphy, Nebraska’s James Palmer and Michigan State’s Cassius Winston. For his efforts Brazdeikis has been named the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Week, four times — Dec. 3, Dec. 10, Dec. 31 and Jan. 28. He is tied with Tim Hardaway Jr. for second all-time for a freshman Wolverine earning the conference accolade. Trey Burke leads U-M list with seven accolades in the 2011-12 season.
+ Through 20 games, U-M is averaging 71.7 points per game, more than +15.2 than its opponents (56.5). U-M has held its opponents to 70-or-fewer points in 19 games, with 13 games of 60-or-fewer points scored and five with 50-or-fewer points. South Carolina (Dec. 8) remains the only team to surpass 70 points against U-M, scoring 78 in its loss to the Wolverines.
+ Over the last five games, U-M’s Ohio Boys — Zavier Simpson (Lima, Ohio) and Jon Teske (Medina, Ohio) — have taken over for the Wolverines. Teske has averaged 14.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game. He is shooting 62.2 percent from the field (24-for-37) and 50.0 percent (8-for-16) on 3-pointers. During this stretch, Teske added two double-doubles at Illinois (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Northwestern (17 points, 11 rebounds; Jan. 13) and two road games with four blocks — at Illinois and at Wisconsin. Simpson has averaged 13.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He added his first career 20-plus point game with 24 against Northwestern (Jan. 10) with a career-best five 3-pointers as well as adding his second double-double of the season with 11 rebounds and 10 rebounds at Wisconsin (Jan. 19).