Ohio State vs Minnesota College Basketball Bet

Ohio State vs Minnesota

Ohio State ranges from 12 to 13 point favorites at home in Tuesday night's Big Ten matchup with Minnesota.  Chris Holtmann is 4-3 against Minnesota as head coach in Columbus, while first year head coach Ben Johnson is 0-1 against Ohio State.  The Buckeyes won that game in The Barn by 11, though both teams were missing a key player with Eric Curry and Jamari Wheeler both missing at the time.  In conference play, Johnson's Gophers have only one road win, and their five road losses came by an average of 9.2 points.

Both teams are coming off important wins, with Ohio State handling Michigan in Ann Arbor and Minnesota breaking a 6-game losing streak with a home win over Penn State.  While the spread may seem large at first glance, there are unique matchups here that lead me to back the home favorite in what should be a big home win.

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Matchup

Ohio State's defense is ranked 48th in the country in mid-range field goal percentage, allowing opponents to make only 34.8% of their attempts from the mid-range, per Haslametrics.  This defensive strength matches up perfectly against Minnesota, who is top 75 in the nation for mid-range field goal attempts.  About a third of Minnesota's shots come between the three point line and the paint.  When they miss, they will struggle to grab offensive rebounds as well.  Ohio State does a good job defensively of limiting opponent offensive rebounds and second chance points.  That tells me Minnesota will have a lot of one and done possessions with missed mid-range jumpshots tonight.

If Ohio State can score well tonight they will have a good chance to run away with the win.  On the offensive end, EJ Liddell is their go-to scorer.  Liddell is scoring 20+ points in four of his last five games with an average of eight rebounds per game in that stretch.  Minnesota is currently bottom two in the Big Ten in both 3pt and 2pt percentage defense, so the Buckeyes should be able to score with relatively little resistance.

I found the best available line Tuesday morning by using BetKarma's free Odds Comparison Tool.

 

Best Bet: Ohio State -12 -114 vs. Minnesota

Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook

 

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