Purdue at Ohio State | Game Preview | New Buckeyes

#2 Purdue had a scare at home against Minnesota, but that's nothing compared to the last week for Ohio State.

The Buckeyes let go of Head Coach Chris Holtmann after seven seasons on Wednesday. The Buckeyes loss on Tuesday night to Wisconsin was its sixth in seven games. For the second straight season, a talented Ohio State team got off to a hot start before collapsing towards the start of Big Ten play.

Last season, it was a 1-14 skid from January 5th that started with a last second loss to Purdue that extended to a loss at home against Penn State on February 23rd. Ohio State looked to have rounded the corner slightly at the end, winning three games in the Big Ten Tournament before falling to Purdue in the semi-finals.

This season started off well again, with Ohio State losing just once in its non-conference, picking up wins over Alabama and UCLA. But its non-conference slate was a pretty gentle one and the Big Ten again didn't treat the Buckeyes well.

Penn State beat Ohio State in the Buckeyes second conference game of the season then Holtmann's team lost three straight to Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Holtmann's teams have been consistently talented and he's heralded as one of the better coaches in the country. But that talent both on the court and behind the clipboard has not seemed to click for a school who is still predominately a football facing sports department.

Holtmann has consistently fielded offenses ranked in the top-20, but his defenses haven't followed suit. This year team's have decimated the Buckeyes at the three-point line, shooting nearly 36% from beyond the arc at a high volume.

But for whatever on-court and off-court reasons, the Buckeyes have decided to move on from Holtmann mid-season.

Ohio State will have four days to transition under Jake Diebler's interim leadership. Its first test won't be an easy one, as the #2 Boilermakers come into town. Last year it took a second half flurry and a last second three-pointer from Fletcher Loyer to win in Columbus for the Boilers.

But Purdue 23-2 (12-2) has an even better team than last year's and is riding a 9 game win streak heading into Columbus.

Ohio State 14-11 (4-10) will try to rally behind the new circumstances and pick up a signature win on what looks to be a lost season.

Despite Ohio State's lack of team success, Roddy Gayle and Bruce Thornton present an interesting match up of talented sophomore guards for Purdue who has its own pair of talented sophomores.

Thornton is one of the conferences more solid point guards even with his shooting slumping.

Roddy Gayle isn't shooting the ball well this season either, but he showed his ability to catch a hot hand against Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament last season when he went 5 of 6 from three. He's got great size as an off-guard and Purdue's attention to detail and sticking with shooters will be tested by Gayle.

But both guards will be put into the spotlight in the off-season. Both will be highly coveted by other programs and losing their coach makes a potential transfer even more possible.

Or will Holtmann's departure act as a fortifying agent for the two young guards? Both have not played their best basketball in conference play. Thornton is one of the conferences most sound point guards, assisting on a quarter of his possessions and turning it over less than 10% of the time, but his shot has abandoned him. He's shooting less than 30% from three in conference play.

Gayle on the other hand has raised his play making, nearly doubling his assist rate, but he's turning the ball over roughly the same amount. His shooting has been even worse than Thornton, knocking down just 26% of his threes in conference play. Gayle doesn't offer the same to the basket scoring as Thornton.

The offense, which is 45th in the country, relies heavily on its two guards to be better than this, and they haven't been.

Jamison Battle has turned into one of the best shooters in the country after leaving Minnesota to spend his fifth year in Columbus.

It's been a dazzling transformation for a long, skilled four that shot just over 31% from three last year. Battle is hitting 43% of his threes on the season and that's gone up to 45% in Big Ten play. He's also taken a ton of them, 151 to this point, and it makes him one of the most difficult to defend stretch fours in the conference.

But the ball doesn't leave Battle's hands when he gets it. After a slight uptick in his junior year at Minnesota, Battle has become the same black hole he was early in his career. He has a 6.8% assist rate.

He's coming off two of his least effective games of the season, scoring 8 points in 44 minutes in a win over Maryland in double-overtime and just 3 points in 27 poor minutes against Wisconsin where he went 1 of 6 from the floor.

Purdue's defense is prone to overhelp, especially with bigs that can attack, but with a player like Battle, Purdue should and will send a bunch of bodies and swiping hands at his drives. Braden Smith in particularly has been great at this, with 4 steals in each of the last two games. With someone like Battle, Purdue knows his tendency is to shoot, shoot, and shoot more when he lowers his head and goes to dribble.

Battle's ability to stretch the floor will test Purdue's fours, but it also makes the choice of keeping Mason Gillis out there a pretty easy one for Painter.

Will Ohio State make some changes to its rotation?

With the firing of Holtmann, you would have to expect something to change. Will interim coach Jake Diebler look more to the future?

Zed Key is a senior who has never fully taken off at Ohio State. Jamison Battle is a transfer out of eligibility after this season. Dale Bonner is a senior shooting 27% from three playing about half the game.

There's a flurry of youngsters on the roster with 6-7 Scotty Middleton and 6-6 Devin Royal as two wing freshman that have been solid in limited minutes. Felix Okpara and Evan Mahaffey are two more sophomores that should be the backbone to Ohio State's program going forward.

Will Diebler look to get them as much playing experience as possible going forward? Or will he stick to experience and try to throw some wins together.

But the difficulty of this matchup is that Ohio State will change - we just don't know how yet. Purdue won't know how. It will be the same players, but the Buckeyes have had four days to start to turn around their season with a new voice. It makes for an interesting narrative as Purdue heads to Ohio State for the only regular matchup between the two programs.