Ohio State vs. Maryland Big Ten Basketball Betting Preview

The No. 22 Buckeyes will travel to Maryland to take on the Terrapins on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET. Ohio State is coming off one of their biggest wins of the season away at 15th ranked Illinois.

Freshman Malaki Branham played an incredible game, scoring 31 points to fuel the Buckeyes. Ohio State star EJ Liddell added 21 points and six rebounds in 34 minutes.

Maryland has won its last two out of three outings but fell to the Indiana Hoosiers by a score of 74-64 in their last game. Maryland only has three games remaining in the season compared to Ohio State, who has four games left before the Big Ten Tournament.

Maryland will need to make a huge run in the Big Ten tournament to make it into the NCAA tournament, and that might not even be enough.

Let’s look ahead at this late season Big Ten matchup on Sunday afternoon.

Expected Odds

The Buckeyes rank fourth in the Big Ten compared to Maryland’s twelve ranking in the conference. This has truly been the case of two different teams at two very different levels of talent. Ohio State will be favored, but the question is, by how much?

I expect the Buckeyes to be an 8-10 point favorite against the Terrapins, and rightly so. That is a hefty margin for a road game, but the Buckeyes have much more to offer, especially on the offensive side of the floor than Maryland, and that will show on Sunday.

Latest Bracketology

From the latest update from Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology, he is predicting that the Buckeyes are currently a four seed. They will need to finish up the regular season strong to improve on that seed.

A long run in the Big Ten tournament will also help their cause, but a few key losses will cause them to lose a few spots to make it a harder first-round matchup for them in both tournaments.

I believe that the Buckeyes would have to lose every game for the rest of the season to lose their NCAA tournament berth. I don’t anticipate that this will happen, but crazier things have occurred in college basketball in March.

Expected Outcome

If the spread is what I expect it to be, I wouldn’t bet on the Buckeyes to cover that large of a spread on the road in the Big Ten. They will win this game, but no road game is easy, especially as we get closer to the end of the season. 

EJ Liddell will make or break the Buckeyes by how much he can produce. He has played consistently well all season, but they will need him to step up in a big way if Ohio State expects to go deep into the tournament.

Upcoming Schedule

After this game against Maryland, the Buckeyes will finish off the season playing three home games against Nebraska, Michigan State, and Michigan. Maryland will conclude their season with a home game versus Minnesota and on the road against Michigan State.

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