Illinois' Bill Cole (30) and D.J. Richardson, right, guard Ohio State's Jeremie Simmons (23) during their NCAA college basketball game at the Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill.

AP photo

The last time Purdue played Ohio State, Robbie Hummel had a career first half, scoring 29 points and hitting eight 3-pointers.

Then Ohio State junior Evan Turner started his national Player of the Year campaign, leading the Buckeyes to a come-from-behind victory with a 32-point performance less than two weeks after returning from a fractured back.

At the time, Ohio State improved to 2-3 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes haven’t lost in the league since.

“They look like the same team to me,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “They were real good then and are real good now. Are they playing better now? No question about it.

“…The win versus us really helped them get going.”

Ohio State hasn’t lost in the Big Ten since Jan. 9 at Minnesota - the game before the Buckeyes’ 70-66 win over Purdue.

Lately, Ohio State has been dominant. The Buckeyes have won their past five games by double-digits, highlighted by a 72-53 win at Illinois while putting themselves in a tie for the league lead with Michigan State.

A lot of it started in West Lafayette.

“Well, probably quite a bit,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “It was a road win for us and it kind of got us rolling in the Big Ten. Going into that game, we were still a team that was still getting back into the flow.”

Ohio State, which plays Purdue again on Wednesday, has no issues with that now.

Return of Lucas

Kalin Lucas came back last week from an injured ankle, but the Spartans nonetheless lost another game, their third in a row. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said Lucas isn’t completely healthy.

“I’d say he’s 80 percent,” Izzo said.

Lucas, the Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year, was injured at one of the toughest stretches of the Spartans’ schedule, in the midst of a three-game swing playing other Big Ten leaders Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue.

“We hit it at a tough time for us, playing a lot of back-to-back games, more or less,” Izzo said.

After Tuesday’s game against Indiana, Michigan State has a break to let Lucas return to health.

Reality setting in

With Northwestern losing to Iowa last week and sitting at 6-7 in the Big Ten entering Monday, Wildcats coach Bill Carmody is realistic when it comes to trying to secure the school’s ever-elusive first bid to the NCAA tournament.

“I told our guys we have five games left in conference and we have to win four of them,” Carmody said. “…That’s just what we have to do. We have to win almost every game.

“Usually I say you have to play one game at a time and see where you land but at 6-7 in the conference, you clearly have to win almost every game.”

Northwestern has home games against Penn State, Iowa and a non-conference game against Chicago State along with road games at Iowa, Penn State and Indiana left before the Big Ten tournament.

Carmody said last week and reiterated Monday he thinks a 10-8 Big Ten mark will be enough to get Northwestern in, however at a media NCAA tournament mock selection last week, the Wildcats were barely in the at-large discussion.

Johnson Player of the Week

For the second time this year, Purdue junior forward JaJuan Johnson became the Big Ten Player of the Week after averaging 20 points and 8.5 rebounds in wins over Iowa and Michigan State.

Johnson had 21 points and 10 rebounds against Iowa and 19 points against Michigan State.

This and that

Painter would like to see more balance in the Big Ten schedule so you don’t play a team twice in 10 days. … Izzo called this year’s Big Ten schedule and season “the strangest” he’s seen since he’s been coaching in the league.