COLUMBUS, Ohio - They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Looking at Ohio State and Michigan, who will host the Buckeyes in the Crisler Center on Tuesday, shows that these rivals may be closer than any other teams in the Big Ten.

Ohio State holds a slight edge in overall record over the Wolverines (14-7 vs. 13-8), but the teams have identical 4-6 records in the conference. Their games within the Big Ten have been similar as well with both teams holding a 3-2 record at home while winning just one of five games on the road.

"They're just like us,” CJ Walker said. “They kind of had some adversity hit but it's the Big Ten, you never know what could happen.”

Both teams saw a similar slump take place during January in which these rivals went 2-5 over the month, then winning their first game in February (Ohio State over Indiana, Michigan over Rutgers).

Beating Northwestern and Indiana doesn't mean that Ohio State's season is immediately saved or fixed, but it's a turning point for a team who experienced January struggles for a second consecutive season.

It's been easy to nail down why the Buckeyes had struggled (turnovers, cold shooting, defensive lapses), but Walker said the biggest improvements they have made is with their overall presence on the court.

"I would just say awareness, you know, whether it's ball watching and things like that," Walker said. "Knowing who you're guarding, know where you're at on the floor and defensive rebounding. Those are biggest things that we're getting better at and just continuing to build off that."

While Ohio State has a star athlete in Kaleb Wesson, averaging 13.9 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, Michigan has a similar floor general in guard Zavier Simpson. The guard averages over 12 points per game and dishes out over eight assists as well.

"You got a guy like Zavier Simpson who has a lot of great attributes, but I think his greatest attribute is his brain," Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said. "I mean, it's phenomenal. His ability to read, process information like a quarterback and read things so quickly."

Simpson will be a problem for the Buckeyes with his 47.8 shooting percentage from the field, but the Wolverines as a whole are shooting 46.9 percent from the field, 36th best in the country.

Ohio State will have to lock down defensively as five Wolverines average at least 10 points per game, so while Simpson will be a focus for their offense, Michigan can hurt teams in a lot of ways.

Even though Michigan (and Ohio State) has struggled as of late, Holtmann doesn't want to take much away from these streaks for Tuesday's game, as he looks at the team's entire resume, not just a disappointing January.

"You play a whole season," Holtmann said. "It's not just a snippet of two weeks or three weeks or four weeks, and while they may have struggled a little bit, as we have, another good team. They're gonna have a good finish to the year."

The game will tip off at 7 pm EST from the Chrisler Center in Ann Arbor and can be found on ESPN 2.