5 Toughest Games on Ohio State Buckeyes' Schedule

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The Ohio State Buckeyes may have lost Jared Sullinger and William Buford over the offseason, but they will still have a lot of talent on their team. However, the Buckeyes have a very tough schedule.

Ohio State's out-of-conference schedule isn't necessarily the toughest in the nation, but by no means will it be easy. Two games that won't even be included on this list are games against Wisconsin and Marquette, two excellent teams which highlight how hard the Buckeyes schedule is this year.

Read on to see the five toughest games on Ohio State's schedule in the 2012-13 college basketball season. 

Michigan State Spartans, Jan. 19

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Michigan State may be without its best player from last season, Draymond Green, but it will still have Keith Appling, Branden Dawson, Derrick Nix and some very talented incoming freshman. 

This game may be on the road for the Buckeyes, but they are a much better team than Michigan State. The Spartans will have a very tough time trying to contain Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas.

Not to mention, Ohio State will have one of the best defenses in the country. 

These two teams met three times last year. The Buckeyes beat the Spartans at Michigan State, and the Spartans beat the Buckeyes at Ohio State.

The final matchup was for the Big Ten conference tournament, where the Spartans came up victorious by the score of 68-64.

Duke Blue Devils, Nov. 28

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This is by far the toughest out-of-conference game for the Buckeyes in the upcoming season.

Last season these teams met in Ohio, and the Buckeyes dominated with a final score of 85-63.

Both teams lost some players from last season, but the Buckeyes definitely lost the most.

Ohio State is good enough to pull off the victory in one of the toughest environments to play in in all of college basketball, but they will have to find a way to contain the Blue Devils great three-point shooting.

Seth Curry is the leader of this team, but Duke also has Quinn Cook, Rasheed Sulaimon and Ryan Kelly, who are all pretty good from behind the arc. Not to mention, Duke will have a pretty good front court in Mason Plumlee, Amile Jefferson, Alex Murphy and Josh Hairston.

As you can see, the Blue Devils have a lot of depth on their team. 

Kansas Jayhawks, Dec. 22

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This will be a rematch game of last year's Final Four matchup between Kansas and Ohio State. Not only did Kansas beat the Buckeyes earlier in the season, but they also beat them in the Final Four to reach the national championship game. 

The Jayhawks took a huge hit by losing Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson over the offseason, but you can't feel too bad for Kansas, since it will be returning Jeff Withey, Elijah Johnson and Travis Releford.

However, the Jayhawks will also have some very good incoming freshmen, including redshirt freshman Ben McLemore. 

Kansas may be a different looking team from last season, but these are the Jayhawks, and they are pretty much a contender every single year. 

Michigan Wolverines, Feb. 5

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The Michigan Wolverines are good enough to win the Big 10 title outright in the upcoming season. Michigan may not be the best defensive team in the country, but it has one heck of an offense.

Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. are both returning to the Wolverines this year, and both players are good enough to win the Big 10 Player of the Year Award. 

Although the Buckeyes have an elite defense, they will still have trouble guarding one of the best two-player combos in the nation. 

The Buckeyes won two of the three game these teams played against each other last season. 

Indiana Hoosiers, Mar. 5

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This game could very well decide the Big Ten regular season champion. 

Indiana will likely enter the season as the No. 1 team in most of the polls. Although the Buckeyes are a Top Five team, it will not be easy to beat one of the best teams in the country on their own floor.

Cody Zeller highlights the Hoosiers, but Indiana has one of the most balanced attacks in the nation, bringing back all five starters from last year's team. Four out of five of those starters averaged more than 10 points per game. Will Sheehey was the only starter not to average in double figures, but he still managed to put up 8.6 points per game.

Last season these two teams split victories on their own floors, however, Ohio State will no longer have Sullinger or Buford, so this should be a completely different matchup. 

 

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