The Ohio State Men’s Basketball team is really in what most will consider a must-win situation as it goes into the Big Ten Tournament this week in Chicago. The No. 8 seeded Buckeyes will face off in a second-round game against the No. 9 seeded Indiana Hoosiers. The winner of this game should likely make the NCAA Tournament while the loser will likely be out of the Big Dance.

The Buckeyes will have big man Kaleb Wesson back after he served a suspension that was imposed due to a violation of athletic department rules. Chris Holtmann announced the return of Wesson during the tournament head coach teleconference.

Ohio State went 0-3 in the three games that Wesson missed including losses at Purdue and Northwestern and a home finale loss to Wisconsin. The Buckeyes got off to slow starts in all three games with first half point totals of 20, 17 and 16 points in those three games, respectively.

Wesson’s last game was against Iowa, a game where the Buckeyes hung a 20-point loss on the then-ranked Hawkeyes in Columbus. In that game, Wesson had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the victorious Buckeyes.

During the course of the season, Wesson has been good for 14.6 points per game and 6.7 rebounds per game. Wesson scored in double-figures in five of the previous six games before he was sat for three games due to that unspecified infraction.

When the Buckeyes and Hoosiers played in Bloomington (Ind.) earlier this season, the Ohio State big man was held largely in check with just 10 points and four rebounds in a 55-52 Ohio State win in the only meeting between the two teams this season.

The Hoosiers are riding a four-game winning streak going into this game and have wins over ranked Wisconsin and Michigan State along with Illinois and Rutgers. Since losing to Ohio State, the Hoosiers are 4-3 while the Buckeyes have faded down the stretch at 2-6, with three of those losses taking place with Kaleb Wesson in street clothes.

The Big Ten Tournament starts on Wednesday with two games involving the bottom four teams in the standings. Ohio State will kick off Thursday action with a 12:30pm (EDT) with the game televised on Big Ten Network. The winner of that game will face No. 1 seed Michigan State at 12:30pm (EDT) on Friday on a game that will also be televised on Big Ten Network.