Ohio State Is a 25.5-Point Favorite Over Marshall in Monday’s Game

The Ohio State Buckeyes enter Monday night as a 25.5-point favorite over the Marshall Thundering Herd in a non-conference men’s basketball matchup at the Schottenstein Center.

The game tips off at 6 p.m. ET in Columbus, Ohio.

Both teams carry a 1-1 record into the contest. Marshall is coming off an 81-76 loss to Toledo on Saturday, while Ohio State defeated Youngstown State 89-65 on Friday. The Thundering Herd are playing their first road game of the year, whereas the Buckeyes are 1-0 on their home court.

Last season, Marshall went 19-13 overall and tied for second in the Sun Belt Conference at 11-7, while Ohio State finished 21-13 overall and eighth in the Big Ten at 12-8.

Ohio State Favors Marshall by 25.5 Points

According to SportsLine, Ohio State is favored by 25.5 points, and the over/under is set at 162.5 points, which is up four points from the opener. Moneyline odds list Ohio State at -7692 and Marshall at +3500. Dimers lists the over/under slightly differently at 161.5 points, with a machine learning model projecting a final score of 90-65 in favor of Ohio State, giving the Buckeyes a 97.4% win probability compared to 2.6% for Marshall.

Models Project the Under for Total Points

The SportsLine projection model has evaluated the matchup and is going Under on the total points, noting that both teams are coming from an Under in their prior games. Marshall and Toledo combined for 157 points, while Ohio State and Youngstown State combined for 154. The model projects the Under to hit 53% of the time, and indicates that one side of the spread hits in 70% of simulations.

Individually, the model projects just one Marshall player to score in double figures, with Noah Otshudi slated to average nearly 14 points. For Ohio State, three players are projected to score at least 12 points: John Mobley Jr., Amare Bynum, and Jimmie Williams.