#22/19 Ohio State at #15/14 Illinois
Date: February 24, 2022
Time: 9 p.m. ET
Venue: State Farm Center – Champaign, Ill.
Watch: FS1
Listen: Ohio State Radio Network from Learfield
Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com
Game Notes: Ohio State | Illinois
Rosters: Ohio State | Illinois
Season Stats: Ohio State | Illinois

TICKETS: Single-game and mini plans are available for all remaining men’s basketball games this season. Visit OhioStateBuckeyes.com or call the Ohio State Athletics Ticket Office in the Schottenstein Center at 1-800-GOBUCKS.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State hits the road this week for the final two road trips of the season. The first of which will be Thursday night at No. 15 Illinois. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. ET on FS1. Tim Brando will join Buckeye Hall of Famer Jim Jackson, who is calling his third consecutive OSU game.

• This will be the 189th meeting all-time between the two programs. Illinois leads the series 108-80 but the Buckeyes have won three of the last four meetings in Champaign.
• Last year, the teams played three great games. Each team won on the other’s home court during the regular season and then, they battled into overtime in the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament with Illinois winning 91-88. Duane Washington Jr. led the Buckeyes with a career high 32 points in the championship game
• The Buckeyes just finished a stretch of three games in eight days and are about to play five games in the final 11 days of the regular season.
• J. Liddell scored 16 points in the win over Indiana on Monday night and extended his double-figure scoring streak to 35 games. He has done it all for the Buckeyes this year and is deserving of being in the Big Ten Player of the Year conversation.
• Liddell is fourth in the conference in scoring at 19.5 and recently moved into 10th in school history in career blocks with 120. He is averaging 2.5 blocks this season which is tops in the conference.
• Freshman Malaki Branham is coming off a tremendous game vs. Indiana where he led the team with a game-high 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting and 8-of-8 from the free throw line. He has averaged 17 points per game over the last five games and is shooting 66.7 percent from the floor. He has four games of 20 or more points this season.
• Eugene Brown III has started the last four games and has given the Buckeyes a spark. He had 10 points, six rebounds and three steals in the win over Indiana. It was just the third game of 10 or more points in his career and the first against a Big Ten team.
• Jamari Wheeler has played in 150 games in his career and has notched at one steal in 115 of those games. He has 226 steals in his career which is now 10th all-time in Big Ten history.
• The Buckeyes are creeping towards 20 wins for the fifth consecutive season. They would be just one of three Power 5 teams (Oregon & Kansas) to record 20 wins each of the last five years. Head coach Chris Holtmann’s teams have won 20 or more games in each of the last eight years.

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