When: 7 p.m. Tuesday and 4 p.m. Saturday

TV: ESPN and ESPNU

Radio: WBNS-AM (1460), WBNS-FM (97.1) \

The week that was

Turkey for the team at coach Thad Matta's home on Thanksgiving was followed by a turkey of a team in Value City Arena on Saturday. Samford was brought in to give the Buckeyes a look at the Princeton offense Northwestern runs. Not even Northwestern struggles to score this badly. Samford had six points at halftime and 22 at the end. Bulldogs coach Jimmy Tillette called his offense a "weapon of mass destruction."

\ The week ahead

The kid gloves come off. The Buckeyes not only hit the road for the first time, they play their first ranked opponents. It's Miami on Tuesday night for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, then Notre Dame on Saturday in Indianapolis as part of the first college Basketball doubleheader in Lucas Oil Stadium. Given its challenges on offense, it would not be surprising if Ohio State puts up a couple more 40-spots like it did against Texas A&M and Butler early last season. The Buckeyes could catch a break, though, if Notre Dame's cinder-block center, Luke Harangody, is not fully recovered from pneumonia.

\ How good are they?

Samford was no measuring stick, certainly. The zone defense still has holes and the offense isn't decisively attacking the zone defenses it has faced from all three opponents. Curious to see whether Miami and Notre Dame, who have the horses to match up man-to-man with the Buckeyes, zone them instead to restrict their driving lanes and keep their offense on the perimeter. \

\ \ Who's hot?

Samford went at Dallas Lauderdale early in the game, with no success. He blocked three shots (he has 16 in three games) and dissuaded a number of other attempts in 23 minutes. He also made two of three free throws. Evan Turner was a stat-sheet stuffer with 16 points, a career-high 13 rebounds, five steals and four assists. But he also had four turnovers, giving him 11 in three games. Kyle Madsen made the most of his chance to play with six rebounds in 12 minutes. It remains to be seen whether Matta thinks Madsen is hardy enough to bang with the Hurricanes and Irish. \

\ \ Who's and what's not?

David Lighty has missed seven of nine shots from the field the past two games in an offense starved for scoring, and he had four fouls midway through the second half Saturday. The Buckeyes are averaging the fewest points (63.3) of any Big Ten team, rank next to last in the conference in assists and are ninth in assist-to-turnover ratio. Lighty, Turner and Jon Diebler, whom Matta said have to become the "rocks" of the team, combined for 10 turnovers against Samford and the Buckeyes had 18; they have five more turnovers than assists through three games. \

\ \ The Mullens watch

Matta made sure 7-foot freshman B.J. Mullens got involved from the start Saturday. Samford made sure he stayed involved. What I did not see from my perch at the other end of the court, and what the Big Ten Network didn't catch, was Samford guard Gaby Bermudez intentionally nailing Mullens in his groin with the ball on an inbounds play with 10:25 left in the game. "Best fastball we've seen all day," noted network play-by-play man Tom Hamilton, the voice of the Cleveland Indians. Bermudez then faked another throw at Mullens' midsection on the ensuing inbounds. If you're wondering why Mullens momentarily stared at Bermudez after leveling him with a hard but clean foul on Bermudez's drive to the hoop 16 seconds later, that's why.

\

Outside the lines

Yahoo! Sports reported Friday that the Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies have been discussing a trade that would reunite former high-school and Ohio State teammates Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr. in Portland. Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard "knows that Conley has the credibility to get in Oden's face when he needs a push, and that's played an important part in his trade explorations," the report stated. The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, citing a source, reported yesterday that the talks began during the summer but "have been dead for the past month." The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 19. \

\ \ Big Ten periscope

You might have seen Purdue coach Matt Painter jawing loudly at one of the officials Friday after Oklahoma made 33 of 46 free throws and Purdue 4 of 5 in the Boilermakers' overtime loss in the NIT Season Tip-Off title game. Not to mention an inadvertent whistle on a loose ball that allowed Oklahoma to get a timeout in the final seconds and retain possession thanks to the arrow on the scorer's table. "One thing as a coach I think that you'll accept (is), 'Hey, I missed the call,' " Painter said afterward. "When a referee says that, you just say, 'OK, didn't go our way.' But when he came back with the 'inadvertent whistle,' I don't believe it. And it's not fair. The game doesn't need to end that way, regardless of who wins."

\

Quotable

"The first two games I probably tried to rush some stuff. In practice, I've been working hard so the game is kind of slowing down." -- Mullens, after finishing the first half against Samford with eight points, three rebounds and a steal.

\ \ bbaptist@dispatch.com