Preview: No. 4 UConn men’s basketball vs. Ohio State | 7:30 p.m., TNT

The No. 4 UConn mens basketball team (3-0) is back in action Friday night, hosting the Ohio State Buckeyes. Don’t let the lack of AP number next to Ohio State’s name fool you. While OSU doesn’t have the pedigree of UConn’s other non conference foes, this will be a tougher test than people think.

That’s in part because there’s already some adversity for UConn to overcome. The Huskies will be without sophomore standout Nik Khamenia, after the Duke transfer left the Wagner game in the first half with a left foot injury. Khamenia is expected to miss at least six-to-eight weeks.

Ohio State is 2-1 on the year, dropping its season opener to BYU but taking care of business versus Marshall and Youngstown State. Head coach Jake Diebler has gone from 14 wins to 21 in his two years in Columbus, with the Buckeyes winning 21 games and making the second round of the NCAA tournament last year. It wouldn’t be crazy to see them improve on that win total again.

OSU is a top 30 team by both Bart Torvik and Haslametics. Their KenPom no. 21 offense sits ahead of UConn’s at no. 23. They’re well-balanced and have high-end talent. Remember the Texas game UConn couldn’t pull away from last year? Folks were upset, but Texas went on to the Sweet 16. We could be looking at a script like that again.

What to Watch For

Silas the Virus

Wednesday night, Elliot Cadeau dominated Marquette to the tune of 17 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. One night earlier, Jeremy Fears Jr. torched Duke for 18 points and 11 assists. What do those things have in common? They never happened when Silas Demary Jr. was the defender.

Silas the Virus held Fears to 5-15 shooting in the Sweet 16 last year. He bottled up Cadeau last Friday, forcing the Michigan maestro to 3-11 from the field. He was too hobbled in the title game to make an impact, and what happened? Cadeau lit UConn up.

Ohio State’s best player is 6-foot-2 junior guard John Mobley Jr., averaging 19 points and five assists per game and shooting 53% from the field. Mobley is a lethal shooter that needs only a hair of space, and his ability to make plays in the paint has improved this year. He ranks in the top 3% nationally in scoring volume, and the top 1% in 3-point percentage per EvanMiya. Let him run wild and Ohio State suddenly looks dangerous. Cut off the head of the snake, and watch it flail around.

Justin Pippen is a really solid backcourt mate, but won’t break a game open like Mobley can. Demary Jr.’s defense this year looks to be the type of thing you have to gameplan for in a scout.

The senior is playing like an All-American, and is EvanMiya’s third-best player in the country. Mobley is really really good, but if Silas keeps playing at this level, it won’t matter.

Who picks up the slack?

Khamenia was 6-11 from three in his three games. He had poured in 11 points in as many minutes before going down vs. Wagner. He looked to be every bit the connective piece — plus with some playmaking flair — that Dan Hurley envisioned.

Now, proper floor spacing will fall primarily on Braylon Mullins, who’s coming off a forgettable 1-9 performance from three. Don’t bet on a prolonged slump from Mullins, who was in the gym late after the rough night.

But the margins are a little tighter now, and it will be all hands on deck to have as many shooters in rhythm ahead of the Arizona-Illinois-Duke portion of the schedule.

Maybe run Silas into some off-ball actions to get catch-and-shoot looks. Jayden Ross will have to keep upholding the ‘3’ of his 3-and-D role (40% from three this year, so far so good). Colben Landrew will have to knock down open looks. It’s a lovely day for a Joey Calcaterra-esque explosion from Nils Machowski. Egor Asomov, come on down.

UConn has shooters up and down its roster, but there have been bouts of inconsistency that, if encountered again without Khamenia, can make life a little more difficult going forward.

Ohio State won’t be doing anything special worthy on defense They’re the third-worst KenPom defense in the top 35. For as special as Mobley is at shotmaking, he can get exposed on the other end. Not a single Buckeye is in Evan Miya’s DBPR Top 500 (!). It’s very early in the season to go spreadsheet diving, but still.

The open looks will be there. Who will knock them down and seize the playing time void?

Bigs Breakout

This is the youngest UConn center tandem we’ve seen in the Dan Hurley era. The pattern has always been veteran to newcomer, dating back to Adama Sanogo as a freshman and Isaiah Whaley/Josh Carlton as upperclassmen. A sophomore-sophomore pairing is a departure from the norm.

Those expecting to copy-and-paste the type of production that Tarris Reed Jr. (and his predecessors) supplied — especially on offense — need to recalibrate. Na’jai Hines is a sophomore but only 19. Oskar Giltay is a sophomore who averaged under 15 minutes per game last year at Stanford. The offensive polish will take time, and defensively, the duo are arguably ahead of schedule.

Hines is already a top 20 center defensively. Giltay is top 50. There will be silly fouls. There will be missed bunnies. Michigan’s Moustapha Thiam and JP Estrella were a heck of a first test for the new frontcourt. They weren’t needed much against Wagner, so its hard to judge their statlines.

Against the Buckeyes, we could start to see UConn’s bigs exert their force a little more. Sophomore Amare Bynum is a beast, averaging 15 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-8, 245-pound bruiser is an elite finisher and can stretch the floor too, going three of six from three versus BYU.

Andrija Jelavic has made the leap after getting out of the cesspool down in Lexington, Kentucky. The 6-foot-11 mobile big from Croatia has gone from 5.5 points and four rebounds per game as a freshman to averaging 15 points and 7 rebounds this year. Both are solid pieces for Diebler and a testament to his ability to develop talent.

Both are Ohio State’s best defenders on the team, statistically, per EvanMiya, but are a tad undersized. It could be a breakout night for Hines.

Keep an eye on Anthony Thompson, a Top 10 recruit that has struggled to start the year. The 6-foot-9 wing scored 11 points against Marshall and could be a tough cover for Landrew/Ross. That may be another area where Khamenia’s absence is felt immediately. Josh Ojianwuna is a big-body rim runner with above-average finishing ability. All of OSU’s bigs are above-average finishers around the rim. Will UConn’s rim protectors and deterrents win out?