First Half Notebook: No. 23 Ohio State vs. Northwestern

Here are some of my first half observations of Ohio State and Northwestern in Evanston on Saturday afternoon.

Halftime Score: Ohio State 34, Northwestern 34

The overwhelming thought from the first half for Ohio State - they were pretty sloppy handling the basketball. The Buckeyes are turning it over like crazy late in the first half. The Bucks average about nine turnovers per game, and they've got eight late in the first half. It's turned into 16 Wildcat points. You just can't afford to do that on the road in the Big Ten.

Also, Northwestern is a top-10 team in the country shooting the 3-ball. I have to think they're going to hit a few more in the second half and the Buckeyes have to find ways to be better defending around the arc. The Wildcats are missing open jumpers and statistically that won't last. They've only hit 2-of-9 from deep and have missed several others from 15-18 feet.

The Buckeyes picked up two team fouls within the first two minutes of the game. For whatever reason, Ohio State has gotten into some early foul trouble lately. I think the Buckeyes are in for a really stout defensive test today against the Wildcats, so that's something I'm going to keep my eye on. Good news as things progressed is they only committed six more the rest of the way and nobody has more than two fouls as the second half starts.

I loved the early rhythm OSU got in, hitting its first four shots from the floor. But that quickly turned into an 11-0 run for Northwestern over 2:35.

I like the flow of the transition game for Ohio State right now. Chris Holtmann has spoken semi-regularly about trying to move from defense to offense more quickly and I'm noticing a nice uptick in that part of the game today. Northwestern isn't turning the ball over (zero turnovers in the first 8-plus minutes), but I like the way OSU is rebounding and getting up the floor. The 'Cats finished the first half with just two turnovers, but Ohio State is +7 on the rebound margin.

Outside of Miller Kopp, none of the other Wildcats are really getting in a rhythm. Kopp has 14 points on 6-of-10, but the rest of the team is a combined 8-of 22 and nobody has more than four points.

Duane Washington, E.J. Liddell and Kyle Young are all coming off career-high performances in the comeback win over Rutgers on Wednesday. Liddell is off to a good start this afternoon, but statistically haven't gotten much yet from Young and Washington.

Seth Towns has buried three 3-pointers. That could be exactly what the Buckeyes have been missing at the beginning of the season. Glad to see him healthy and confident. He has 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting so far.

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