GAME NOTES: The Michigan Wolverines shoot for a rare three-game win streak this afternoon as they host the Ohio State Buckeyes in a Big Ten Conference showdown at Crisler Arena. Michigan opened the 2007-08 campaign with back-to-back wins over Radford and Brown, but it has taken until now for the team to again log two straight victories, beating Penn State at home eight days ago and then topping Iowa on the road on Valentine's Day, 60-52. Unfortunately, the two most recent triumphs still have the team a dismal 3-9 in conference play. As for the Buckeyes, they've alternated wins and losses for the last five games, with Wednesday's meeting against Northwestern on the road resulting in a 65-47 triumph. With the victory, OSU is now 8-4 in Big Ten play and 17-8 overall. With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, OSU is ahead by a count of 89-70, although with sanctions taken into account the margin drops to 86-63 for the Buckeyes. Earlier this month, Ohio State posted a 65-55 win at home against Michigan.

Except for David Lighty who finished with just two points in 21 minutes of action earlier this week, every starter for the Buckeyes hit for double digits versus Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Kosta Koufos recorded a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds, followed by Othello Hunter with 14 points, five boards and four steals, while Jamar Butler and Evan Turner posted 12 and 10 points, respectively, and combined for 13 of the unit's 16 assists as well. Playing 36 minutes per game, Butler is not only the leading scorer for the program with his 14.2 ppg, he has also issued 157 assists over the course of 25 starts, with just 60 turnovers. While Butler handles the action out on the perimeter for the Buckeyes, Koufos is the man on the inside with his 13.6 ppg and team-best 6.8 rpg, not to mention 45 blocked shots which somewhat covers up his mere 12 assists thus far. Defensively, the Buckeyes are limiting opponents to just 59.3 ppg this year.

Keeping the offense to a minimum, Michigan took a mere 42 shots from the field in 40 minutes against Iowa on Thursday night, yet still came away with the victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Manny Harris dropped in a team-best 15 points, thanks largely to his 8-of-8 effort at the free-throw line, followed by DeShawn Sims with 10 points as he made it through a 4-of-12 shooting effort from the floor. Harris and Sims have handled the ball more than anybody else for the Wolverines this season, combining to take an outrageous 579 field goals attempts, representing almost 43 percent of the team's total over the course of 24 games. Harris is left with 15.8 ppg and Sims 12.7 ppg, the former already having made almost twice as many free throws (113-of-139) than any one else on the unit has even attempted thus far. Clearly, having just two players dictate most of the action for Michigan has not worked out, resulting in just 64.5 ppg for the group.

Leaving the outcome up to Harris and Sims hasn't been a great option for the Wolverines this season, but that's really all the group has. With the Big Ten Conference Tournament just around the corner, OSU can not afford to allow winnable games like this to slip away.