Opponent: Indiana

Where: Assembly Hall (17,357) in Bloomington, Ind.

Date, Time: Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. ET

TV: Big Ten Network (announcers Chris Denari and Shon Morris).

Records, Rankings: Ohio State 18-6 (8-3 Big Ten), No. 13 AP, No. 16 Coaches; Indiana 9-13 (3-7), unranked.

RPI Rankings (from collegerpi.com): Ohio State 38, Indiana 222.

Key Players: Indiana – 6-foot-5 sophomore G Verdell Jones III (14.9 points per game, 4 rebounds per game, 3.3 assists per game); 6-9 freshman F Christian Watford (12.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg); 6-2 senior G Devan Dumes (6.9 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 1.1 apg); 6-5 junior G Jeremiah Rivers (6.4 ppg, 5 rpg, 4 apg); 6-0 freshman guard Jordan Hulls (5.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 1.7 apg); 6-9 freshman F Derek Elston (5.4 ppg, 3.9 rpg); 6-9 sophomore F Tom Pritchard (4.9 ppg, 4 rpg); 6-9 freshman F Bobby Capobianco (2 ppg, 2.2 rpg);

* Ohio State –  6-7 junior G Evan Turner (19.7 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 5.7 apg, 2 steals per game); 6-5 sophomore G William Buford (14 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.3 apg); 6-6 junior G Jon Diebler (12.8 ppg, 3 rpg, 1.7 apg); 6-5 junior F David Lighty (12.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1.7 spg); 6-8 junior C Dallas Lauderdale (7.1 ppg, 5 rpg, 2.4 blocks per game); 6-2 senior G Jeremie Simmons (5.9 ppg, 0.9 apg); 6-1 senior G P.J. Hill (4 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 1.6 apg); 6-9 senior F Kyle Madsen (2.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg).

Quality of Opponent: Below average, but dangerous at home. Ohio State had its way and then some with Indiana in the first match-up this season (79-54 in Columbus on Jan. 6), but in Bloomington, this might be a close one. The Hoosiers narrowly missed an upset victory over Purdue at home last week (lost 78-75) and the Buckeyes have to be careful to not overlook them. … One thing that has greatly hurt Indiana is the loss of freshman guard Maurice Creek for the season with a fractured knee. He was the team’s leading scorer through 12 games at 16.4 ppg. The Hoosiers have not had nearly enough firepower without him. … One player that does a little bit of everything for Indiana is Rivers, who played against Ohio State in the 2007 Final Four when he was a freshman at Georgetown. Lighty is OSU’s lone remaining player from that team. This is Rivers’ first season of eligibility at IU after transferring.

Key Matchup: Turner has been able to turn his game up yet another notch recently, which is alarming for OSU’s opponents considering how well he’s been playing all season. Perhaps the front-runner for national player of the year, Turner is fresh off his career-high-tying 32-point performance against Iowa (with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals to go with it … and no turnovers). Indiana will try and slow Turner down and make his supporting cast do most of the damage, but that is easier said than done. One of the benefits of Turner being the point guard is the ball is in his hands every possession and he is unquestionably the floor general out there. And if he gets double-teamed, he is excellent at finding his teammates like Buford and Diebler for easy buckets. … The Hoosiers really only have two players that can do a lot of damage offensively: Jones and Watford. Look for the Buckeyes to give them a lot of extra attention and force guys like Dumes, Rivers and Hulls to take more shots than they’re accustomed to.

Chess Match: Ohio State has been mixing up its defenses quite a bit and it will be interesting to see what head coach Thad Matta has in store for the Hoosiers. Will the Buckeyes deploy mostly man-to-man? Will they go with a 1-3-1 zone? A 2-3 matchup zone? A 2-1-2 trapping zone that they broke out against Iowa last time out? One thing is certain: Matta has never tinkered with his defenses so much within a season … and the results have been good. Hard to argue with a seven-game winning streak in one of the toughest conferences in the country.

Fun Facts: Turner was named Big Ten Player of the Week on Feb. 8, marking the fifth time he has won that award this season. That enabled him to tie Glenn Robinson (Purdue) for the single-season record. It was also the eighth of Turner’s career, setting the conference career record. He surpasses Robinson’s and Ohio State’s Jim Jackson’s career total of seven. … Ohio State is 6-29 all-time in Assembly Hall, which opened for the 1971-72 season. OSU’s wins in Assembly Hall came in 1985, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2009. OSU’s 93-81 win there last year snapped a three-game losing streak in Bloomington. … Ohio State will be going for a regular-season sweep against IU for just the fifth time in the 39-year history of Assembly Hall. The previous times were in 1985, 1991 and 1999. … Matta is 6-5 all-time against Indiana, including 6-4 as OSU’s coach.

OSU-IU series: Indiana leads the all-time series 99-71, including 60-21 in Bloomington.

What’s At Stake: The Buckeyes need to keep the heat on Michigan State (19-5, 9-2) for first-place in the Big Ten. The Spartans are just one game ahead of OSU and the teams will meet for the only time in regular season on Feb. 20 at MSU. The Buckeyes are rolling with seven-straight Big Ten wins and they can’t afford a letdown against one of the worst teams in the conference. [UPDATE: Due to Michigan State's 76-64 loss to visiting Purdue on Tuesday, Ohio State can move into a first-place tie with MSU and Illinois with a win over Indiana.]

What They’re Saying: Matta on Turner cutting down on turnovers recently: “Well, I’ve said this all three years with Evan: I view him as a risk taker. There may be some games where he turns it over a little bit. But I think just in watching his development – and really all of these guys – they are thinking the game as they catch it and really sequencing their looks to what is the right play to be made. And I think Evan, he’s got a pace about him right now that I really like. He seems to know when to go. The other day (against Iowa) when we got the ball and he’s coming down in transition and I’m kind of like, ‘No, no, no. Pull it back, pull it back. I mean, great shot on the layup.’ But he just sort of let everything develop and I think part of him was saying ‘Pull it back’ and part of him was saying, ‘If there’s an opening, I’m going to go.’ And that’s what he did.”

Matta on warning his players to not overlook Indiana: “There’s an element of respect and respecting your opponent and having an understanding that that teams wants to win just as badly as you do. … And I think this: Indiana is obviously a team that is playing great basketball at home. Certain guys in their wins at home have made significant threes. Jones is playing very well. Watford is playing well. They are a team that they have a ton of actions and they are going to end up driving the basketball. Big guys are picking and rolling and scoring off of those. So, I think it’s really a conservative team mindset that all five guys are joined out there and reading what is happening. For us, the other thing about Indiana is they like to get the ball out in transition, which we like to do as well. And that will be a little bit different than what we’ve played against the last couple games. Getting our guys ready for transition has been fun.”

Prediction: Ohio State 73, Indiana 64 (This won’t be a cakewalk for the Buckeyes in a hostile environment, but the better team will come out on top.)