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Michigan State basketball vs. Ohio State tipoff: Matchup analysis and a prediction

Published

3 months ago

February 22, 2026

Press Room

Michigan State basketball vs. Ohio State tipoff: Matchup analysis and a prediction

• What: Michigan State vs. Ohio State

• When: 1 p.m. Sunday

• Where: Breslin Center

• TV/Radio: CBS/Spartan Sports Network radio, including WJIM 1240-AM and WMMQ 94.9-FM; SiriusXM Ch. 83 (MSU broadcast), 380 (Ohio State broadcast)

• Records/Rankings: MSU is 21-5 overall and 11-4 in the Big Ten, and ranked No. 15 by both the Associated Press and USA TODAY Coaches poll. The Spartans are No. 12 in the NET rankings and No. 10 per the college basketball analytics site Kenpom.com. Ohio State is 17-9 overall, 9-6 in the Big Ten, and unranked by both major polls, while being No. 38 in the NET rankings and No. 36 by Kenpom.

• Betting line: MSU -10.5

• Coaches: Michigan State — Tom Izzo is 758-307 in his 31st season as a head coach, all with the Spartans. Ohio State — Jake Diebler is 42-27 in his third season as a head coach (second full season) and with the Buckeyes.

• Series: MSU leads 76-61 all-time. MSU won the only meeting last year, 69-62 in Columbus.

Projected lineups

MSU

C (15) Carson Cooper (6-11) 10.0

PF (0) Jaxon Kohler (6-9) 12.4

SF (55) Coen Carr (6-5) 11.9

SG (6) Jordan Scott (6-7) 5.8

PG (1) Jeremy Fears Jr. (6-2) 15.1

Ohio State

C (13) Christoph Tilly (7-0) 11.4

PF (1) Amare Bynum (6-8) 9.6

SF (21) Devin Royal (6-6) 14.0

SG (3) Taison Chatman (6-4) 4.3

PG (2) Bruce Thornton (6-2) 19.9

• MSU update: The Spartans are coming off a much-needed win and performance Tuesday against UCLA. At 11-4 in Big Ten play, MSU is out of the Big Ten title race, but playing important games now for NCAA tournament seeding and, to a lesser extent, Big Ten tournament seeding. The Spartans are very much in the hunt for a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, which would be a far better path than being a 4 or 5 seed in terms of their path to a deep run. Getting to a 2 seed isn’t out of the realm of possibility, though it would take some work, perhaps wins at Purdue and at Michigan.

Before the Spartans can worry about that, they’ve got to handle business at home against Ohio State. MSU is the No. 6 team in the country in defensive efficiency and No. 40 in offensive efficiency, per Kenpom, and the Spartans are No. 2 in defensive rebounding percentage and No. 6 in offensive rebounding. MSU point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. continues to lead the country in assists at 9.2 per game.

MORE: Couch: Unless something changes, Michigan State basketball’s offensive limitations will be an insurmountable hurdle

• Ohio State update: The Buckeyes just walloped Wisconsin, 86-69, Tuesday night for their most impressive win of the season. Senior guard Bruce Thornton, who’s become one of those players who it seems has been around for a decade, is playing like he’s determined to taste an NCAA tournament before he’s done. Ohio State last reached the Big Dance in 2021-22, the year before Thornton arrived. The Buckeyes have a decent shot to make it this season. Right now they’re projected right on the NCAA bubble by a number of bracketologists. The win over Wisconsin helped. Winning at MSU would do wonders for their case. Hurting their chances is a hand injury to sophomore guard John Mobley, the team’s second-leading scorer and most prolific shooter. Mobley is out indefinitely after having surgery on his hand after suffering the injury during the USC game on Feb. 11. Since he’s been out, Ohio State has lost to Virginia on a neutral court and bludgeoned the Badgers at home.

• Matchup analysis: The loss of Mobley hurts the Buckeyes. He was shooting 40% on 175 3-point attempts. Mobley’s replacement in the starting lineup, redshirt sophomore Taison Chatman, is a strong shooter, who’s made 2 of 4 3-point tries in each of his two starts and is 17-for-32 from deep on the season. Thornton is a three-level scorer. He’s the engine and an elite pick-and-roll guard, a bucket-getter more than he’s a distributor, though he’s had eight assists twice in the last three games. He’s also scored 56 points over the two games without Mobley. I don’t think MSU will want to risk Fears getting in foul trouble defending Thornton. I’d expect Jordan Scott to get that assignment and see if he can do to Thornton what he did to Illinois’ Keaton Wagler. Disrupting Thornton is the key to limiting an Ohio State offense that ranks 22nd nationally in Kenpom and is among the top five in the Big Ten.

While the Buckeyes have some shooters, they’re at their best inside the arc and getting to the free-throw line, where they shoot close to 80%. Devin Royal can be a tough matchup on the wing, but it’s one that MSU is equipped to handle with Coen Carr and perhaps Cam Ward. Christopher Tilly, a Santa Clara transfer, is 7-feet and skilled offensively, but not a great defender or rebounder.

• Prediction: The Buckeyes will be more invested in giving the Spartans a fight than UCLA was on Tuesday night. But this is the sort of game MSU ought to win at home — and one the Spartans have to win if they want to move toward a top 3 seed in the NCAA tournament and hope to get a top 4 seed in the Big Ten tournament, which comes with a double-bye. MSU has been too good at home for teams beneath the elite tier.

• Make it: MSU 77, Ohio State 67

MORE: Couch: By transforming MSU Athletics, J Batt hopes to build a sustainable enterprise — and winning football

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.

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Can you eat Ohio River fish? Just Askin’

Published

5 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Can you eat Ohio River fish? Just Askin’

Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?

In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.

At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.

There were warnings in 1977

But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.

Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.

But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.

So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?

The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.

There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.

In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.

Here’s where to check

Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.

Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish

The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.

Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.

Have a question for Just Askin’? Email us.

The Just Askin’ series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, except maybe Google.

Do you have a question you want answered? Send it to us at justaskin@enquirer.com, ideally with Just Askin’ in the subject line.

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Ohio

UCLA offensive coordinator visits four-star Ohio State commit

Published

17 hours ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

UCLA offensive coordinator visits four-star Ohio State commit

It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.

Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?

Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.

247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.

It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.

Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.

Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.

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Ohio

Ohio rural healthcare access — an advanced solution?

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

Ohio rural healthcare access — an advanced solution?

A report from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio found that rural residents are 15% more likely to die before the age of 75. Allowing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses to operate more independently could be a solution to allow better access to care.

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