{"id":20595,"date":"2011-12-28T04:00:33","date_gmt":"2011-12-28T09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20595"},"modified":"2011-12-27T18:30:50","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T23:30:50","slug":"northwestern-vs-ohio-state-big-ten-conference-basketball-opener-in-columbus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/northwestern-vs-ohio-state-big-ten-conference-basketball-opener-in-columbus-20595\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwestern vs. Ohio State: Big Ten Conference Basketball Opener in Columbus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northwestern Wildcats at No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes
\nWednesday, 12\/28\/11, 5:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 N\/A
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Ohio State -16.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Ohio State -16.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 135.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 134.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Northwestern Wildcats played the Ohio State Buckeyes extremely tough a year ago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northwestern tips off its 2011-12 Big Ten Conference season when traveling to take on the second-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes inside the Value City Arena in Columbus, OH.\u00a0 The Wildcats have presented the Buckeyes some trouble the last few meetings, something that bettors should be aware of.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of style of play and really good players,\u201d commented Buckeyes head coach Thad Matta.\u00a0 It\u2019s still important to note that the program has lost its past 30 games played in Columbus.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats had their three-game winning streak snapped last time out, dropping an 87-79 contest to the Creighton Blue Jays as 7.5-point road underdogs.\u00a0 Northwestern will lean heavily on junior forward Drew Crawford and senior forward John Shurna, as they are averaging 18.1 and 19.4 points per game respectively.\u00a0 The program dropped its conference opener a year ago, falling 82-69 on the road against 12th-ranked Purdue.\u00a0 \u00a0 Taking care of the basketball is a major strength for this program, leading the nation with a 1.85 assist-to-turnover ratio this year.<\/p>\n

Ohio State has won four straight games since dropping its only game of the season to Kansas, which includes a 69-40 victory over the Miami (OH) RedHawks as 24-point home favorites.\u00a0 The Buckeyes have only one senior on the roster and many of the players know that a long season is still ahead.\u00a0 \u201cEvery game\u2019s going to be a grind,\u201d commented Buckeyes point guard Aaron Craft.\u00a0 \u201cEveryone starts anew in conference play.\u201d\u00a0 The program is 51-44 in conference openers, including a 36-16 mark at home during Big Ten play.<\/p>\n

The Buckeyes have registered a 109-45 record against the Wildcats, including a 63-14 mark in Columbus.\u00a0 Since Matta took over the program during the 2004-05 season, Ohio State is 130-10 in front of its home fans.\u00a0 He has also directed the team to the most regular-season conference wins with 85 and the most overall wins with 202 over that same span.\u00a0 All eyes will be on sophomore center Jared Sullinger, who has already missed two games with back spasms, while missing another with an injured ankle.\u00a0 He experienced some swelling in his foot after the team\u2019s victory over Miami.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Wildcats due to their 6-1 ATS mark on the road, while the Buckeyes are 1-4 ATS in the last five meetings.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northwestern Wildcats at No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes Wednesday, 12\/28\/11, 5:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 N\/A Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Ohio State -16.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Ohio State -16.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 135.5 Current Total:\u00a0 134.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Northwestern tips off its 2011-12 Big Ten Conference season when traveling to take on the second-ranked Ohio State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3442,6249,3883,6250,3119,463,5742],"class_list":["post-20595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-drew-crawford","tag-jared-sullinger","tag-john-shurna","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-value-city-arena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20595"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20597,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20595\/revisions\/20597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}