As the sun set on Columbus in the late afternoon of December 2, bars and restaurants began to fill up in anticipation of the Big Ten Championship game.
The football Buckeyes were back in Indy, finally, and they would be getting another shot at humiliating Wisconsin again, the unblemished champions of the B1G West. As luck would have it, the same two schools would also be meeting in Madison for a men's basketball game three hours prior to kickoff.
That matchup wasn't on the marquee. It barely made the undercard. Wisconsin had the 32nd-ranked team in KenPom, while a very thin (75th, woof) Ohio State roster was preparing for a deep roster with Micah Potter nursing a sprained ankle.