Ohio State suffers devastating injury loss ahead of next week’s Michigan State game

Michigan State fans simply do not want to consume any Spartan basketball content the day after a loss, and I don’t blame them. Reading about a 21-point road loss is not exactly something that I like to do either.

There has been very little good news coming out of the Michigan State basketball program over the past few weeks outside of an overtime win over No. 5 Illinois.

But at least Michigan State is not Ohio State right now.

The Buckeyes currently find themselves on the bubble entering the home stretch, and Jake Diebler has his work cut out for him with matchups against Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Iowa, Purdue, and Indiana still approaching. There’s a very good chance that the Buckeyes lose 5-6 more games during the regular season, especially after the latest news.

According to Jon Rothstein, Ohio State just lost its second-best player for an indefinite period of time after he suffered a hand injury.

How does this affect Michigan State? Because the Spartans face Ohio State a week from Sunday, likely meaning that he won’t be ready for that game in East Lansing. There’s been no word on how serious the hand injury is, but the fact that he’s out indefinitely likely means he’s going to miss a couple of weeks, at least.

I could be wrong and I don’t like to speculate, but I’d be surprised if he was ready a week from now after being ruled out indefinitely.

Ohio State still presents a tough matchup for Michigan State

Of course there are still weapons that Ohio State has that could give Michigan State problems next Sunday, like Bruce Thornton, but losing Mobley for an indefinite period almost makes the Buckeyes one-dimensional.

Thornton averages nearly 20 points per game and is one of the Big Ten’s best players but Mobley makes up the other half of that talented backcourt. That doesn’t mean Ohio State is going to be a cakewalk for the Spartans, however. The Buckeyes still have Devin Royal, a former Michigan State recruiting target, and Christoph Tilly who both average 11-plus points per game.

Someone else is obviously going to have to step up in the backcourt for Ohio State, which may be an issue because no other guard averages more than 3.9 points per game. Don’t sleep on Puff Johnson.

Michigan State still has things to figure out on its own but this is a huge blow for the Buckeyes ahead of next week’s showdown in East Lansing.