Michigan and Ohio State have one of the best rivalries in sports and on Tuesday night the two teams will go at it at Value City Arena on ESPN and the Big Ten conference matchup starts at 9 pm and will be streaming live from the WatchESPN website and is a big matchup for both the Wolverines and the Buckeyes as they head towards March and the end of the schedule.
The Wolverines have been playing very well this season and are ranked number 15 in the nation and after hitting a little slump, Ohio State is back in the top 25 and they are ranked at 22 as the game goes down on Tuesday. Ohio state comes into the game after winning four of the past five games and that stopped a little losing streak that could have derailed the season, as the team lost five of six games in the conference, starting with a heartbreaking loss against Michigan State in overtime and that game was on the road.
OSU still has Michigan State on the schedule at the end of the season and that game will be at home and comes after two games on the road against Penn State and Indiana. The team is coming into the matchup against Michigan after a nice win over Purdue and that was their third win in a row after losing to Penn State in overtime by one point. The team has the chance to win three games in four matchups against top 25 and that comes after winning by one over Wisconsin and then against Iowa and both those games were on the road. Thad Matta and his team needed those wins and now they have the Wolverines before playing MSU later in the schedule and those are the only two ranked teams currently left on their schedule.
Ohio State started the season undefeated into January, but the loss against Michigan State put them in a tough spot and now they are pulling out of it and they have improved to a 19-5 record on the season and they are now 6-5 in the conference. Aaron Craft has once again been the star and he leads the team in assists and has been fantastic on the defensive end as well.
Michigan comes into the game after dropping just their second conference matchup and that was on the road against number 17 Iowa and that was a bad loss by almost 20 points and now Nik Stauskas and company will try and get things right against their biggest rivals on Tuesday night. The team comes in shooting nearly 50 percent from the field and they are ranked in the top 20 in the nation and are averaging over 75 points per contest on offense and allowing just 64 points on defense, ranked in the top 50 in the country.
Michigan comes into the game after a bit of a rough stretch, losing their first two conference games to Indiana and the Hawkeyes, but just before that they had one of the best runs of the season, winning against number three Wisconsin and then against Iowa before winning against number three Michigan State, making it three in a row against teams in the top 10. That experience will help the team in the tournament and later in the season as the Big Ten tourney comes up.
Check here for the Michigan and Ohio State live coverage from ESPN.