Ohio State won’t get its chance at a second-straight win against North Carolina as originally scheduled, but a Wednesday switch due to COVID-19 protocols will give the Buckeyes another shot at a college basketball blue blood this weekend.

No. 20 Ohio State (5-1, 0-1 Big Ten) is coming off its first loss of the season in the conference opener against Purdue on Wednesday, but UCLA (5-1, 1-0 Pac-12) has been trending upward as of late following a couple shaky performances to start out the season.

"We were gonna have one day of prep for this opponent either way," Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said Friday. "Our staff had already done some work on North Carolina, so we were a little bit behind on preparing for UCLA, but it's certainly doable."

The two teams will meet at the CBS Sports Classic in Cleveland, their second meeting since 2018 –– an Ohio State win –– and just their ninth all-time matchup, with the Bruins having won six of the previous eight.

Both beginning the season ranked in the bottom four of the AP Top 25, the Buckeyes started hot before inconsistent performances and the loss of sophomore forward E.J. Liddell finally caught up with them, but UCLA has quickly gotten its act together after an opening game double-digit loss to unranked San Diego State.

That loss has aged well for the Bruins though, as the Aztecs have subsequently ascended to No. 18 in the nation, but UCLA also struggled to put away Pepperdine in their following contest, taking three overtimes to defeat a WCC program that sits at just 4-3 in the early season.

Since then though, the Bruins have coasted to wins over Seattle, San Diego and Marquette in the nonconference, and buried California by 20 in their Pac-12 opener.

It’s the first 5-1 start for the program since 2017-18, and Mick Cronin is UCLA’s third different head coach since that season.

"You really see the influence of Mick's personality on this UCLA team and this UCLA program," Holtmann said. "You see a level of togetherness in how they play offensively and defensively, a commitment on the defensive end, a commitment on the glass."

The backcourt has led the way for UCLA thus far, with sophomores Jaime Jaquez and Tyger Campbell each putting up impressive numbers through six games.

Jaquez, a 6-foot-6 wing and the No. 83 player in the class of 2019, is leading the team with 14.8 points after taking a significant leap from his freshman season. Jaquez has scored 17 and 18 points, respectively, in the past two games, and is off to a scintillating start shooting the ball, hitting 57 percent of his field goals and 46 percent of his 3s.

Campbell, a 5-foot-11 point guard, leads the Pac-12 with 7.2 assists per game, nearly five more than anyone else on the Bruins’ roster, and he’s no slouch in the scoring department either. Campbell is the team’s third-leading scorer at 12.5 points per game, and actually attempts the most shots on the roster.

But like the Buckeyes’ own this season, the Bruins’ scoring load is quite spread out, with seven players averaging at least 8.8 points per game, and three at 12.5 or more.

With Ohio State’s lack of size this season, and in particular without Liddell due to mono, opposing bigs will continue to be an area of concern for Holtmann and company for the foreseeable future.

Holtmann did say the Buckeyes would evaluate Liddell, who has missed the past two games, in practice on Friday, which hints to the possibility of an imminent return.

"The final word will be once we see him, if he's able to practice at all," Holtmann said.

Cronin may not have any 7-foot-4 Goliaths like Purdue’s Zach Edey, but he does have a pair of 250-or-so-pound junior forwards in 6-foot-9 Cody Riley and 6-foot-10 Jalen Hill. Riley is the starter of the two, but Hill is UCLA’s leading rebounder at 7.8 per game, and they each average 8.8 points a night.

The Bruins also possess great size on the wing, as senior starter Chris Smith, who is second on the team with averages of 13.2 points and seven boards, is listed as a 6-foot-9 guard.

Ohio State freshman forward Zed Key has played big minutes in Liddell’s absence the last two times out, but in his first taste of Big Ten competition, Key didn’t have much of an impact. Key scored just five points and corralled only three rebounds, and senior power forward Kyle Young added just six points against the Boilermakers.

Young is one of three regular Ohio State starters shooting worse than 37 percent from the field this season, which has helped tank the Buckeyes’ team field-goal percentage to 43 this season, ranking No. 208 in the nation.

It won’t help matters that UCLA is one of the country’s better defensive teams as far as opponent field goal percentage is concerned, holding teams to just 40 percent, although Ohio State has similar numbers defensively in that regard.

Specifically though, UCLA has been tremendous defending the 3, allowing opponents to shoot just .276 from beyond the arc, while Ohio State is one of the nation’s worst teams against the 3, with opponents hitting on .385 of their attempts.

The Buckeyes and Bruins are scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. tip-off at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Saturday.