By Danielle Daniels

3 14 2024

Ohio State vs. Iowa – Big Ten Tournament
Date: March 14, 2024
Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Target Center – Minneapolis, Minn.
Watch: BTN
Listen: Ohio State Radio Network from Learfield
Website: Tournament Central
Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Game Notes: Ohio State | Iowa
Rosters: Ohio State | Iowa
Season Stats: Ohio State | Iowa

COLUMBUS, Ohio – It’s Big Ten Tournament week and Ohio State is in need of a big tournament to vault itself into NCAA Tournament consideration. The 10th-seeded Buckeyes open the tournament on Thursday against No. 7-seed Iowa. Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m. ET and the game will be televised on BTN. Kevin Kugler, Robbie Hummel and Andy Katz will call the action.

• The Buckeyes are 33-18 all-time in Big Ten Tournament games and 15-7 in their opening game of the tournament.
• Ohio State has won four tournament titles, the last of which coming in 2013, and has made nine title game appearances.
• Last year, the Buckeyes became the first No. 13 seed to reach the semifinals with three wins over Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan State. The Buckeyes were also the first team to open play on Wednesday and reach Saturday’s semifinals, where they fell to top-seeded Purdue.
• This will be the fourth meeting in the Big Ten Tournament between Ohio State and Iowa. The Buckeyes are 2-1 all-time and are coming off a 73-69 win over the Hawkeyes in the second round of last year’s tournament.
• Overall, this will be the 170th all-time meeting between the two teams and Iowa holds a slim 85-84 lead in the series. The overall point margin is also close as the Buckeyes have outscored Iowa by just 14 points in the 169 meetings. Officially, taking into account vacated games, Iowa holds an 83-79 edge.
• In the previous meeting this season, the teams battled back-and-forth in Iowa City before the Hawkeyes came away with a 79-77 victory. Jamison Battle led four Buckeyes in double figures with 17 points on 3-of-5 from long range. Big man Felix Okpara tied a career-high with 14 points to go along with a game-high eight rebounds and two blocks. Bruce Thornton also had 14 points and five assists.
• The Buckeyes enter the week having won five of six games under interim head coach Jake Diebler, including each of the last four. They finished the year tied for ninth in the Big Ten at 9-11.
• Ohio State punctuated the regular season on Sunday with a 73-51 win at Rutgers, marking its largest margin of victory in a B1G road game in six years. Roddy Gayle Jr. led four Buckeyes in double figures with 14 points. The Buckeye defense limited Rutgers to just 27 percent shooting (15-of-55) and had eight blocked shots.
• The Buckeyes have shot over 50 percent in each of the last two games, marking just the second time that they’ve had back-to-back games of 50 percent shooting or better this season and the first since winning two games at the Emerald Coast Classic in November.
• The Buckeyes have also won all four of its neutral site games this season.

#GoBucks

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