Perhaps it is not surprising that Georgetown has a big date with Ohio State in Atlanta on Saturday. If the two teams had profiles on eHarmony.com, they would be close to a perfect match.

The list of what the two teams have in common goes on and on.

For starters, it has been a while since they have won a Final Four game. The Buckeyes have not won a national semifinal since 1962, while the Hoyas last made it to the national championship game in 1985.

They have both been on a roll for the last couple of months. Ohio State (34-3, 15-1 Big Ten) has won 21 games in a row. Georgetown (30-6, 13-3 Big East) has won 19 of its last 20.

They have both had a few nail biters in this year’s NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes beat Tennessee by one point and defeated Xavier in overtime. The Hoyas squeaked by Vanderbilt with a single point and took down North Carolina in overtime.

Both teams have talented seven-footers who have a tendency to get into foul trouble. Ohio State freshman center Greg Oden (15.4 points, 9.5 rebounds per game) leads the Buckeyes with 13 fouls in this year’s tournament, while Georgetown junior center Roy Hibbert (12.7 points, 6.9 rebounds per game) has committed 14 fouls in the tournament to lead the Hoyas.

Both squads have five players who average at least 8.6 points per game.

Neither team has lost on a neutral court this season. Ohio State is 9-0 and Georgetown is 7-0.

They do well when they score 70 or more points. The Buckeyes are 22-1 this season when they rack up at least 70 points, while the Hoyas are 15-0.

“They’re similar to us in ways,” Georgetown junior guard Jonathan Wallace said.

On Saturday, something has got to give. The difference-makers for Ohio State could be freshman guard Mike Conley Jr., who averages 11 points per game, and senior guard Ron Lewis, who averages 12.8 points per game.

Conley might give the Hoyas some trouble because of his passing skills and ability to drive to the basket. He ranks seventh in the nation in assists, averaging 6.1 per contest, and he has dished out 10 assists in a game six times this season.

“Conley’s a lefty who is very smooth,” Wallace said. “He’s quick at times and he knows how to get his way into the lane and create plays for Oden and Lewis and those other guys. The main thing is trying to keep him out of the lane and force him into tough, contested shots.”

Conley and Lewis have helped the Buckeyes enjoy a tremendous advantage over their opponents at the free throw line all season long. They use their quickness to get to the hoop, forcing defenders to foul them to prevent them from scoring easy buckets. Ohio State has attempted 761 free throws this season, while its opponents have attempted only 450. In this year’s NCAA tournament, the Buckeyes have attempted 51 more free throws than their opponents.

The Hoyas, on the other hand, have been outscored from the charity stripe 59-49 in this year’s tournament. Georgetown had 18 free throw attempts against North Carolina, while the Tar Heels had 34. The Hoyas, particularly Hibbert, will try to do a better job of playing solid defense without committing fouls against the Buckeyes.

Ohio State has been ranked among the top seven teams in the AP Top 25 poll all season long. All three of the Buckeyes’ losses came against highly ranked teams, North Carolina, Florida and Wisconsin, but they do not have many impressive wins. Before defeating Memphis 92-76 last Saturday, they had defeated only two teams that were ranked at the time, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

The Buckeyes will likely have to play their best game of the season if they hope to beat Georgetown on Saturday. Last year, the Hoyas defeated Ohio State 70-52 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

“They are an extremely different team than they were then, and we are an extremely different team than we were then,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “You look at that game just to get a feel of the flow and a feel of what we did and what they did, but then you forget about it.”

Wallace said that the Hoyas are happy to be in the Final Four, but their work is not done yet.

“It feels pretty good to still be playing at this time of year,” Wallace said. “But you can’t be content. We’ve got to keep going after it.”

Tip-off at the Georgia Dome on Saturday is set for 6:07 p.m. The game will be televised on CBS.