What to expect from Wisconsin vs. Ohio State

After a blowout win on Thursday night, the No. 21 Wisconsin Badgers will head to Columbus to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes for a Sunday afternoon conference contest.

In its regular season finale, Wisconsin (21-9, 13-6 Big Ten) will face an Ohio State (18-12, 8-11) squad that will once again be without its leading scorer and rebounder in sophomore Kaleb Wesson due to suspension, as reported by multiple reports on Friday.

The Buckeyes have missed Wesson, his 14.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. The past two games, OSU has lost by 35 points at Purdue and 18 at Northwestern. In both Big Ten matchups, Chris Holtmann’s team scored no higher than 51 points.

In 28 games, Wesson shot 51.1 percent from the field and converted 72.7 percent of his free throws. In the two games he has missed, the Buckeyes have shot just 29.4 percent overall (33-of-112). That includes only making 10 of 50 field goal attempts (20 percent) collectively in the first half of both losses.

Ohio State has lost five of its last seven heading into Sunday’s matchup, but it leads the all-time series against Wisconsin 88-70. UW holds just a 23-53 record against OSU in Columbus.

Team stats

• Points per game: 69.4 (12th in Big Ten)
• Opponents’ points per game: 65.3 (fifth in Big Ten)
• Field goal percentage: 43.8
• Opponent field goal percentage: 41.7
• 3-point percentage: 33.7
• Opponent three-point percentage: 32.5
• Free throw percentage: 73.1
• Assists per game: 13.8
• Turnovers per game: 12.5
• Steals per game: 5.7
• Blocks per game: 2.5 (last in Big Ten)
• NCAA NET ranking: 49

Key KenPom.com stats (as of March 9)

• Team rank: 45
• Adjusted offensive efficiency: 108.7 (84th in the nation)
• Adjusted defensive efficiency: 93.9 (25th in the nation)
• Effective field goal percentage (defense): 47.8 (41st in nation)
• Offensive rebound percentage (defense): 26.3 (87th in nation)
• Free throws attempted/Field goals attempted (offense): 35.1 (116th in nation)

Potential Buckeyes starters

• Freshman guard Luther Muhammad: 8.2 points per game; 2.8 rebounds per game; 78.3 percent free throw shooter
• Senior guard C.J. Jackson: 11.8 points per game; 4.0 rebounds per game; 3.8 assists per game (leads team, sixth in Big Ten); 38.3 percent three-point shooter (leads team); 79.3 percent free throw shooter (seventh in Big Ten)
• Freshman forward Justin Ahrens: 3.3 points per game; 1.8 rebounds per game
• Freshman forward Jaedon LeDee: 3.0 points per game; 1.8 rebounds per game
• Junior forward Andre Wesson: 8.6 points per game; 4.2 rebounds per game