After defeating then-No. 11 Ohio State, 66-54, in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Jan. 11 to spark what had been Indiana's best streak of basketball, the Hoosiers travel to Columbus on Saturday to play the Buckeyes with plenty on the line for both teams.

Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Get a 60-Day FREE trial to TheHoosier.com with promo code IU60

After Indiana defeated Ohio State in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Jan. 11, the two programs moved onward in two different directions. Ohio State eventually lost at Penn State and against Minnesota at home, bringing its losing streak to six of its last eight after beating Northwestern on Jan. 26.

Ohio State has continued its offensive struggles but not nearly as severely as during its loss to Indiana. Andre Wesson led the Buckeyes with 15 points in Bloomington, but he has since cooled off to a certain extent. Kaleb Wesson remains the primary threat for Indiana, and he could loom larger than in January with a struggling Indiana interior defense.

But after its hot start this season and a ranking that reached as high as No. 2 in the country, Ohio State doesn’t appear to be anywhere closer to making the Tournament than it did the last time it played Indiana.

With that said, though, the game Saturday could still tip either way, based on where both teams are only a few weeks after meeting up for the first time this season. KenPom.com sees it otherwise, as it gives Ohio State a 76-percent chance of winning, the highest for any Indiana opponent remaining.

Indiana needs a win Saturday to not only answer two consecutive losses against beatable teams but to also build its Tournament resume. After Ohio State, the Hoosiers have six games remaining against opponents currently ranked beneath them in the conference standings. Two of those games will be played in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. With five Big Ten wins and an anticipated benchmark of 10 conference wins to crack the Tournament, Indiana is going to need to win on the road soon.

Indiana has played six true road games this season, and it’s won one of them – at Nebraska, who has dropped six games at home, second to only Northwestern in the Big Ten.

Its win against Ohio State earlier this month sparked a streak where the Hoosiers were playing as close to the brand of basketball Archie Miller hopes to coach as the team has reached so far, beating three ranked opponents.

While seasons tend to traverse in cycles and Indiana’s stretch of games to end the season is among the nation’s toughest, the Hoosiers need to both regain an upswing Saturday and prove they can beat tougher opponents outside of Assembly.

Ohio State freshman guard DJ Carton announced Thursday evening that he is stepping away from the game indefinitely to address some mental health concerns. As far as off the court effects are concerned, Archie Miller gave his thoughts on mental health and wellness in college basketball Friday morning, touching on the passing of former Dayton forward Matt Derendecker in 2014.

On the court, Carton was a spark off the bench with plenty of ability but was still building experience. He scored 10 points against Indiana, but his seven turnovers were costly, as the Hoosier backcourt stole eight balls that led to a lot of transition opportunities. Carton’s importance to a team struggling to find offense is undoubtable, though.

In his last game – a win against Northwestern on Jan. 26 – Carton scored a team-high 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting, with four rebounds, three assists and just one turnover. He had made a three-point bucket in all but two games since the beginning of Big Ten play, and before Thursday’s announcement, he was shooting 48 percent from the field and 40 percent from three.

Miller noted, though, the depth of the Ohio State backcourt.

“It won't change our approach much,” he said. “As you look at their backcourt, with (CJ) Walker, (Duane) Washington, (Luther) Muhammad, they're playing (Justin) Ahrens a little bit more now, they're equipped to handle a guy being out. They've done it all year long, and those other guys at the beginning of the season were playing outstanding basketball. So they'll pick it up for him.”

The Buckeyes’ backcourt has been taking punches throughout much of the year, including Washington and Muhammad suspensions a few days after the loss to Indiana. Washington also sat the entire game after eight minutes of gameplay. It’s needed to pick up the slack in certain areas.

That’s largely where Indiana was able to win the game Jan. 11, as tis backcourt stepped up and outplayed Ohio State’s, taking some of the pressure off the frontcourt with 19 points from Devonte Green and 13 from Rob Phinisee.

Before playing Ohio State earlier this month, Archie Miller said playing the Buckeyes is like watching professional wrestling because of their physicality inside. And after dropping games to Maryland and Penn State with fairly soft play inside, Miller’s tone was not necessarily positive when discussing the physicality this time around.

“I don't feel very good right now,” Miller said when asked about Kaleb Wesson and the interior post players for Ohio State. “That's one of our big concerns right now is our interior defense. Here recently, especially in our last two games, our interior defense has been nonexistent. . .Being able to defend inside against (Wesson) is where the game starts and stops because of the way that he posts and they play, and they play around him. If you're going to allow the ball in at will – if you're going to allow him to operate – he's going to cause a lot of problems. It's a huge concern going into game two.”

Senior forward De’Ron Davis mentioned a need to play physical and smart Saturday, managing Wesson, as well as Kyle Young and EJ Liddell, while not getting into foul trouble. The Hoosiers got into early foul trouble against Penn State in State College on Wednesday and couldn’t operate on either side of the floor as well as they were able to in games past, when they played “inside-out.”

Wesson continues to be strong inside for Ohio State, averaging 14 points per game and just under 10 rebounds per game, but Liddell caused many issues for Indiana in his 17 minutes of play and Young isn’t coming off of an appendectomy before game two either.

Redshirt freshman Jerome Hunter has been on a learning curve, and he took a big step against Maryland, scoring 12 points on three three-point conversions and adding four rebounds in a season-high 27 minutes. It will likely be a forgotten effort at the end of the season since Indiana lost the game in the final two minutes, but Hunter played the best game of his short career so far.

He was unavailable to play at Penn State because of a sickness that struck him after pregame warmups, and, combined with the absence of Race Thompson, it left Indiana short-handed when its interior players hit early foul trouble.

“The other night, I thought it stood out a lot,” Miller said about being thin in the frontcourt. “Not as much defensively, but offensively our consistency and being able to have chemistry out there at least. At times we played with lineups that don't play together a lot or hadn't played together a lot, and it messes some things up, for sure.”

That sentiment, about lineups lacking chemistry dates back to the close game against Northwestern in Bloomington, after which Miller said he was shrinking the rotation. Suddenly, Damezi Anderson, who, since losing at Maryland, hadn’t played more than four minutes and completely missed three games, was on the floor for 16 minutes. Trayce Jackson-Davis also found himself playing the five with Justin Smith at the four.

Those are not scenarios in which Indiana wants to find itself but often did at Penn State, and, while Thompson and Hunter’s availabilities will likely remain unknown until the game, their status will be crucial.

----

• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals

• Like us on Facebook.