Fast forward the calendar five weeks and the rematch was the same old story.

Too much Will Buford, Dallas Lauderdale and Evan Turner. No offensive cohesion. And not nearly the defensive intensity needed to be competitive.

The result: A fifth straight loss for Indiana – 69-52 – dropping the Hoosiers to 9-14 overall and 3-8 in the Big Ten.

“It was pathetic in a lot of ways,” Tom Crean told Don Fisher on the postgame radio show. “It was pathetic defensively. It’s inexcusable, but I don’t have a lot of avenues to go right now in the sense of making different decisions. But we will and we’ll be able to correct it and fix it as we move along.”

Through the first 12-plus minutes, Indiana looked like it might make a game of it. With Turner on the bench with two fouls, the Hoosiers were within one at 18-17.

Ohio State responded with a 16-3 run the last 7:48 of the half to grab a 34-20 halftime lead. And the Hoosiers never got within 12 the rest of the way.

“The margin for error against teams like that are so poor for us, but we don’t have any chance when we don’t play harder than that,” Crean said.

Buford finished with a game-high 21 points, Lauderdale added 14 points and eight rebounds and Turner, the front runner for Big Ten Player of the Year, had 10 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 21 minutes.

It was the eighth straight Big Ten win for Ohio State, moving the Buckeyes into a tie for first place.

Indiana, which shot just 37 percent from the field, got 15 points and seven rebounds from Christian Watford and 13 points from Jordan Hulls.

+ Box score

After missing six games in which the Buckeyes (11-4, 1-2 Big Ten) went 3-3, Turner returned Wednesday night with an impressive stat line in just 20 minutes: eight points, five assists and four rebounds.

But more importantly for coach Thad Matta, Ohio State picked up its first conference win, a 79-54 romp over Indiana at Value City Arena.

“We won a game,” Matta said. “I thought we had some decent intensity on both ends of the floor to start the game. I think there’s a lot of challenges. Getting him (Turner) back is huge for us. We’ve got a long way to go.”

If, as Matta said, the Buckeyes have a long way to go, Indiana may have even a longer road ahead.

The Hoosiers (7-7, 1-1) committed more turnovers (24) than they had made field goals (18). They shot just 34 percent from the field. And in the first 15:36 of the contest, they scored only eight points.

“We played like a team that was in its first road game and that’s disappointing,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “We certainly have the capabilities of being better than that.”

By the time Indiana reached double figures in scoring, Ohio State had built a comfortable 20-point lead. And playing in their first true road game of the season, the Hoosiers were unable to get closer than 17 the rest of the way.

Besides the efficient production from one of the primary contenders for Big Ten player of year in Turner, the Buckeyes got solid production from Jon Diebler (21 points) and William Buford (16 points). Diebler hit 5-of-8 3-point attempts and Buford pulled down six rebounds.

“It was definitely fun,” Turner said of his return. “I just had a lot of fun out there. I’m glad we won big. It was a great team win. I’m just real fortunate.”

For Indiana, Verdell Jones led the way offensively with 22 points. Christian Watford also scored in double figures with 11 points and Jeremiah Rivers added four points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Up next: Home vs Illinois on Saturday, January 9 at 8:00 ET on the Big Ten Network.

Crean’s postgame comments: Listen to the Indiana coach in the embedded media player below. Audio is courtesy of Dustin Dopirak of The Herald-Times.

I’ve been told that’s my trademark phrase, and being both Southern and incredibly predictable, it makes sense to break it out to introduce myself.

I’m Zach Osterman, the newest contributor here at Inside the Hall. As IU basketball coverage goes, I haven’t been away long — I covered last season for the Indiana Daily Student and have spent the early part of this season working with the good folks at Bleacher Report.

So when Eamonn’s departure for ESPN created an opening, I asked (and begged and pleaded) with Alex and Ryan to give me a look.

Now, I make no claim to being able to fill the impressive void left by Mr. Brennan. I’m just not that good, and I certainly do not want to disappoint you. I only promise to work hard, avoid (poor) attempts at being clever and never again begin a post with “Hey folks.”

But enough about me, let’s talk about Evan Turner.

Yes, that Evan Turner, the one that does just about everything for Ohio State, or did, before he broke his back. Bummer, dude.

Turner was expected to miss significant time — a layoff of as much as eight weeks was mentioned after the Dec. 5 injury — but now the Columbus Dispatch says Turner might be available when Indiana comes to town Wednesday night. According to the report from Bob Baptist, how Turner fares/fared in a final practice Tuesday will determine his status.

Playing Turner would be an interesting decision, even if he makes it through Tuesday with flying colors. There are many factors to consider.

Foremost, it’s hard for a player to reacquaint himself with his team’s flow after a long layoff, and its often just as hard to regain the confidence to play full speed with the injury still in the back of his mind, even if the pain is gone.

And would Thad Matta want to risk Turner against a Hoosier team that, on paper anyway, should be comfortably disposed of at home? And assuming things are tight late in the game, does bringing Turner off the bench — completely cold — late in the game make sense?

It would surprise me to see Turner leave the bench Wednesday night, unless Ohio State has been playing coy on the severity of his injury all along, which begs its own questions.

For his part, Tom Crean says Ohio State is good, Turner or no, and the Hoosiers have been preparing as though the All-Big Ten winger will play. Thoughts?

We’ve reached out to Bob Baptist, the Ohio State basketball beat writer for The Columbus Dispatch, to answer five questions for the Ohio State edition of Know Thy Opponent. You can read the Dispatch’s OSU basketball blog, Hoops & Scoops, here and follow Bob on Twitter here. The transcript of our Q & A, conducted via e-mail, is below:

Tough start in the Big Ten for the Buckeyes. A 65-43 blowout at Wisconsin and then a 73-64 loss in Ann Arbor to Michigan. What’s the quick synopsis of why Ohio State has struggled in their first two conference games?

Very quick synopsis: They don’t have Evan Turner making plays for every other player on the team, and every other player on the team save for William Buford needs Turner to do that for him.

The loss of Turner (18.5 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 5.9 apg) has obviously been a major blow. When does Ohio State expect to get him back into the lineup?

The team’s orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Grant Jones, told me Sunday at Michigan that Turner was scheduled for an X-ray Monday and that, if all looked good, his activity would be increased this week. If his back tolerates the increase in activity, he could return to the lineup within the next two weeks.

Assuming Turner comes back and is the same player he was early in the season, what’s the ceiling for this team? Sweet 16? Elite Eight?

It could take awhile for Turner to get back in the flow he was in, but Ohio State’s schedule lightens up after a game at West Virginia on Jan. 23, so I think it could have a very good February leading into the tournament. And I think the tournament selection committee will take Turner’s absence into consideration for how Ohio State played early in the Big Ten.

That said, I think this team at best is a Sweet 16 team. It’s too reliant on making outside shots, isn’t a good rebounding team besides Turner, is vulnerable inside defensively if Lauderdale isn’t in the game and gets no offense off the bench unless Jeremie Simmons is hitting his threes.

Looking at the boxscores for the past few games, the Buckeyes are only playing seven players. How big of a problem is depth going forward?

It’ll be eight when Turner returns. P.J. Hill will go back to the bench and be their defensive spark when they need it, and Simmons can bring scoring off it, even if he hasn’t the past two games (his nickname is A.O., for Automatic Offense).

Where they really are vulnerable, as I said before, is inside when Kyle Madsen gives Dallas Lauderdale a blow. He can be scored over and isn’t a threat to score. So far, they’ve gotten nothing but garbage minutes from Zisis Sarikopoulos and Nikola Kecman. Matta keeps saying they’re going to be factors before the end of the season, but so far it’s just empty rhetoric.

This matchup with Indiana is certainly a game fans had penciled in as a win prior to the season and with road games at Minnesota and Purdue coming up, this is a game the Buckeyes need to win. What do you see as the keys to this game for Ohio State?

They need to make shots, something they did prior to the conference season starting but haven’t in the past two games. I don’t think they’ll have a problem defending Indiana, except maybe giving up some threes. But, especially at home, they need to get back to shooting nearly 50 percent from the field. Especially with two more road trips coming up.

The Hoosiers (5-15, 0-8 Big Ten) haven’t won since December 10 against TCU and Saturday’s 11th straight loss tied a record set by the 1943-1944 team.

“We knew it was a matter of time with him,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said of Roth. “He has been spending so much more time in the gym on his own. He is an excellent shooter and sometimes when you’re really good at something you can take it for granted once in awhile. He hasn’t done that.”

Roth finished with 29 points on 9 of 11 shooting from behind the arc and two free throws, but his remarkable display was overshadowed by Indiana’s inability to contain Evan Turner, William Buford and Jon Diebler.

“It’s really a hard situation there because they have so many guys that can score,” Crean said. “Like I said, they have four perimeter (players). I think you can make a case for this throughout the country but Turner is hard a matchup as there is.”

Turner scored 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while Buford added 24 and Diebler 21. The Buckeyes (15-5, 5-4) shot 63 percent, including 10 of 17 3-pointers, and hit 25 of 30 free throws.

Besides Roth, two other Hoosiers reached double figures: Devan Dumes (13) and Nick Williams (11). Indiana shot 47 percent and hit 12 of 18 free throws.

Up next: The Hoosiers host Iowa on Wednesday night at 6:30 PM ET on the Big Ten Network.

Record tying performance: Roth’s nine 3-pointers made tied the mark set by Roderick Wilmont on February 28, 2007 at Northwestern.

• Box score
• Quotes
• Crean audio
• Roth audio
• Williams audio

Though Indiana had a poor shooting first half from three-point land — they finished a woeful 5-of-25 for the game — it lead by as much as 13 thanks to defense that limited Ohio State in the early going and Armon Bassett who tallied 13 points by the break. He finished with a game high 23.

But in the second half, IU got sloppy — I’m looking at you Eric Gordon — and freshman Evan Turner and Kosta Koufos took over for the Bucks. Koufos more than held his own against D.J. White — even tallying a few blocks and showing off his three-point range. He finished with 21 points and six boards. Turner has 13 points on the night.

Steve Lavin and Brett Musberger talked all night about the NBA scouts in attendance at Assembly Hall and you wonder if that affected Gordon at all. It’s clear at this point his ball handling needs work. It’s getting increasingly frustrating watching EJ drive to the rim, only to have it flutter away or an opponent draw a charge. He has seven turnovers in IU’s win. EJ shot 25 percent from the floor and finished with 17 points. Without his ability to draw fouls, Gordon might be finding himself with a much lower scoring average on the year.

With the win, IU stays in the hunt for at least a share of the Big Ten title. The Hoosiers are 24-4 on the year and 13-2 in the Big Ten. They return to action Sunday afternoon at Michigan State to take on the Spartans.

Related:

• Box Score