On Sunday, Illinois travels to Value City Arena to take on No. 14 Ohio State. Tipoff occurs at 12:30 p.m. EST and you can catch it on ESPN. The Fighting Illini beat the Buckeyes 74-55 on Jan. 5 and are 4-6 against them over the last four years.

Illinois is sixth in the conference and Ohio State is second. Both teams continue to jockey for position.

The Fighting Illini fell 63-55 to Iowa on Mar. 5. Brandon Paul finished with 18 points and nine rebounds in the loss. At 16.2, he paces the team in points per game. In a 67-58 victory over Indiana on Mar. 5, Aaron Craft put up 15 points for the Buckeyes. With 4.4 assists per game and 2.0 steals per game, he has team-best marks in both categories.

Ohio State StatSmack

  • Ohio State has to pay up to win. The coach for Illinois has a much lower base salary than Ohio State ($1,500,000 vs. $2,555,000).
  • The Illinois basketball team finishes what they start, with a better graduation rate than Ohio State (100 percent vs. 64 percent).
  • Brandon Paul is ranked 3rd in the Big Ten in points and 6th in the Big Ten in three-pointers.
  • Tracy Abrams is ranked 9th in the Big Ten in assists and 8th in the Big Ten in steals.
  • Nnanna Egwu is ranked 5th in the Big Ten in blocks.
  • Illinois has a much better NCSA Academic Ranking than Ohio State (No. 39 vs. No. 53).
  • Illinois has an average margin of victory of 11 over Ohio State in 38 wins since 1980.
  • Illinois players are more experienced than Ohio State players (17,347 minutes played vs. 12,864 minutes played).
  • Illinois has a much lower admission rate (more selective) according to Kiplinger (65 percent vs. 76 percent).