Michigan Wolverines basketball (13-8, 4-6 Big Ten) hosts the Ohio State Buckeyes (14-7, 4-6 Big Ten) on Tuesday night, in a battle of two arch rivals. The Wolverines are coming off two-straight wins, over Nebraska and Rutgers. The Buckeyes are also winners of two straight. Both teams had impressive starts to the season, before hitting some turbulence in the early Big Ten schedule.

Both teams are also shorthanded at the moment. The Wolverines will likely still be without their second-leading scorer, junior forward Isaiah Livers, due to injury. The Buckeyes will be without freshman guard D.J. Carton, after he has decided to take some time away from basketball to deal with personal matters.

We caught up with Kevin Noon of Buckeye Grove to get some more insight on the Buckeyes.

The Basics

Date: Tuesday, Feb. 4

Time: 7:00 p.m. ET

Venue: Crisler Center (Ann Arbor, Mich.)

TV: ESPN2

Spread: Michigan -2.5

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vs. Cincinatti (W, 64-56)

vs. UMass-Lowell (W, 76-56)

vs. Villanova (W, 76-51)

vs. Stetson (W, 86-51)

vs. Purdue Fort Wayne (W, 85-46)

vs. Kent State (W, 71-52)

vs. Morgan State (W, 90-57)

at North Carolina (W, 74-49)

vs. Penn State (W, 106-74)

at Minnesota (L, 84-71)

vs. Southeast Missouri State (W, 80-48)

vs. Kentucky (W, 71-65)

vs. West Virginia (L, 67-59)

vs. Wisconsin (L, 61-57)

at Maryland (L, 67-55)

at Indiana (L, 66-54)

vs. Nebraska (W, 80-68)

at Penn State (L, 90-76)

vs. Minnesota (L, 62-59)

at Northwestern (W, 71-59)

vs. Indiana (W, 68-59)

#13 - Redshirt junior guard C.J. Walker (6-1, 195) — He averages 7.8 points, 3.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game, while shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from three.

#1 - Sophomore guard Luther Muhammad (6-3, 185) — Muhammad averages 6.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. He shoots 34.9 percent from the field and 31.7 percent from three.

#25 - Junior forward Kyle Young (6-8, 205) — Young averages 7.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per contest, while shooting 61.5 percent from the field.

#24 - Senior forward Andre Wesson (6-6, 220) — The elder Wesson averages 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, while shooting 46.7 percent from the field and 45.7 percent on his three-point attempts.

#34 - Junior forward Kaleb Wesson (6-9, 270) — The younger Wesson leads the Buckeyes in scoring, with 13.9 points per game. He adds 9.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per contest. He shoots 45.1 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from three.

Off The Bench

#4 - Sophomore guard Duane Washington Jr. (6-3, 190) — He averages 10.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game in 22.8 minutes, while shooting 40.9 percent fron the field and 40.4 percent from three.

#32 - Freshman forward E.J. Liddle (6-6, 236) — He averages 6.2 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15.9 minutes per game, while shooting 48.9 percent from the field.

#10 - Sophomore forward Justin Ahrens (6-5, 180) — He averages 3.6 points and 1.4 rebounds per game in 10.5 minues. He shoots 43.5 percent from the field and has made 17 of his 42 attempts from deep.

Will Not Play

Ohio State will be without freshman guard D.J. Carton, due to him taking a leave of absence for the team to deal with personal matters. Carton averages 10.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

#3 - Senior guard Zavier Simpson (6-0, 190) — Simpson averages 12.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. He leads the country in assists per game, with 8.4. He shoots 47.8 percent from the field and 32.1 percent from three.

#55 - Junior guard Eli Brooks (6-1, 185) — Brooks averages 11.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. He shoots 42.2 percent from the field and 39.0 percent from three.

#21 - Freshman guard Franz Wagner (6-9, 205) — He averages 10.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Wagner shoots 42.1 percent from the field and 29.4 percent on three-pointers.

#23 - Sophomore forward Brandon Johns (6-8, 235) — Johns averages 6.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. He shoots 48.9 percent from the field and 34.3 percent from three. He's coming off a career-high 20 points against Rutgers.

#15 - Senior center Jon Teske (7-1, 265) — Teske leads the Wolverines in scoring and rebounding, with 13.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists per contest. He shoots 52.9 percent from the field and 27.5 percent from three.

Off The Bench

#0 - Sophomore guard David DeJulius (6-0, 190) — He averages 7.2 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game in 21.6 minutes. He shoots 41.1 percent from the field and 36.2 percent on three-pointers.

#51 - Redshirt junior forward Austin Davis (6-10, 250) — Davis averages 4.3 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in 9.5 minutes. He shoots 67.5 percent from the field.

#11 - Sophomore forward Colin Castleton (6-11, 235) — Castleton averages 3.4 points and 2.7 rebounds per game in 9.2 minutes, while shooting 53.3 percent from the field.

#5 - Sophomore guard Adrien Nunez (6-6, 210) — Nunez averages 2.4 points per game in 8.6 minutes per contest. He is shooting 26.8 percent from long range.

Will Not Play

Junior forward Isaiah Livers returned three games ago against Illinois after missing the previous six games with a groin injury. He started, and played 19 minutes, notching seven points and five rebounds. He reaggravated the injury early in the second half, and is back to being "day to day." Livers did not play Tuesday against Nebraska, or Saturday against Rutger, and while it's possible Livers plays tonight, it is unlikely. He averages 13.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game for the Wolverines.

Both Teske and Wesson lead their respective teams in scoring. The Wolverines have struggled against opposing post presences, but have done better in that area in recent games. Wesson will get his touches, and so will Teske. A lot of what happens in this game will be determined by the inside play of Teske and Wesson.

Kenpom has predicted Michigan to hold serve against Ohio State, winning 69-68. The site gives the Wolverines a 54 percent chance to beat Ohio State.

"Ohio State climbed to No. 2 in the rankings, was the No. 1 team in the first NET rankings of the year and then it all went away when the Buckeyes went through a dismal January swoon," Noon said. "Ohio State is now on a two-game winning streak but both wins happened against the lower portion of the league with a road win at Northwestern and a home win against Indiana. It certainly has been an up-and-down team where the Buckeyes looked like world beaters at some points and then about as vulnerable as could be at others. It is impossible to get a read on this team from game to game."

"They are very different because Carton was starting to come into his own offensively with a season-high 17 at Northwestern before he decided to step away for a bit," Noon said. "Carton on the court was still very much a freshman and things that worked in high school were not going to work in the Big Ten when he would leave his feet and not have a plan in place of where to go with the ball, some passes that just wouldn’t work in NCAA play and other freshman gaffes. But on the other side, he was an explosive player who could score in bunches and not only was a good change of pace from CJ Walker but the Buckeyes were utilizing both on the court at times and allowing Carton to play off the ball some."

"If I knew, I would tell you," Noon said of what to expect out of Wesson. "Kaleb has been pretty automatic in terms of pulling down 10-plus rebounds a game but he has been inconsistent from the floor and while he was 7-12 against Indiana, he certainly has had his issues against skilled big men in his face and has been anything but automatic in the paint. He is still finding other ways to contribute but he has not been that primary guy that Ohio State fans would expect to see. A 13-and-10 game is not to be unexpected from him but the Buckeyes need that scoring output to be closer to 20 in some of these big games."

"He might be a bigger enigma this year," Noon said of Washington. "He got benched after eight minutes of action against Indiana (the first time around) and then was one of two players to serve one-game suspensions handed down by Chris Holtmann. He will then pop off and have a 20-point game against Penn State but in his last six games, he has been held to nine or fewer in four of them.

"Andre Wesson has really been the more consistent player as Ohio State’s secondary scorer but if this team wants to make any sort of February surge, Duane is going to have to get more consistent and that has not been the case over the last two games where he has been a combined 4-21 from the floor and 2-12 from beyond the arc."

"I would say defense is the key for this team in terms of strength," Noon said. "Outside of getting destroyed at Penn State and giving up 90 points, this defense does a good job of keeping teams in the 50s and 60s and keeping games within reach. Even as January proved to be a bad month, Ohio State still kept teams around those average numbers, the problem being is that Ohio State’s offense went away (more on that in a second) and holding Minnesota to 62 or Wisconsin to 61 doesn’t matter when you can’t get out of the 50s."

"Ohio State can be a poor shooting team," Noon admitted. "That is a problem when Kaleb Wesson is not getting 20 points inside. The Buckeyes may be one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league, but that does not change the fact that this team goes quite cold from 12-14 feet out and gets a lot of one-and-done possessions out there, even worse when coupled with shooting early in the shot clock and not running any half court sets.

"The Buckeyes are hoping the insertion of Justin Ahrens will help the cause, as he is a great outside shooter but he is somewhat limited in terms of not being a player who can consistently create on his own and is more of a set sniper when on the floor. With guys like Luther Muhammad (34.9-percent), Duane Washington (40.9-percent) and CJ Walker (45.5-percent) prone to going cold from the floor, the question is often asked where the offense is going to come from."

"I could see either team blowing out the other one or either team winning a close one," Noon said. "I have absolutely no read on this game whatsoever based on the fact that you just don’t know what each team is going to give you from game-to-game. Both are coming in on two-game winning streaks and we live in a universe where a win against Rutgers might be the most impressive win of the bunch, even if it was a Michigan home game, in New York City.

"Ohio State is starting to figure some things out but I don’t like the Kaleb Wesson versus Jon Teske matchup from an Ohio State standpoint, and this is without even going and looking at the numbers in terms of defensive efficiency or anything of the like. I just think that this will be a tough game for Kaleb in terms of scoring close to the rim. Between that and not having Carton, even with Walker performing well in 35 minutes of action against the Hoosiers, I just don’t see how Ohio State can score enough to win this one, but the Buckeyes will keep it close throughout."

Michigan 66, Ohio State 61

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