COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Buckeyes have three regular season games left on the season and there is no chance that this team finishes above .500 in league play and Thursday's night game against Wisconsin will be the biggest challenge of the stretch run.

Granted, when you are sitting with only five league games and you watch an 11-point lead disappear and a five-point lead with 30 seconds evaporate, nothing should be considered a layup. That is where Thad Matta's team is at this point on the year, down at the bottom of the Big Ten and just trying to find some sort of momentum to enter the Big Ten Tournament with.

It is not as easy as taking an inventory and seeing if this team is headed in the right direction. With back-to-back losses to Michigan State and Nebraska, the answer would be no. But Matta is still trying to rally the troops while keeping a realistic look at what this team needs to do.

"I think that we have still got work to do in the process," Matta said on Wednesday during interviews. "It is not as easy in building a program as snapping your fingers and you say, 'Hey, we want to be back' and it is back. It does not work that way."