COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State basketball needs a turnaround after dropping to 0-2 in Big Ten play with a loss to Purdue on Thursday night.

The Buckeyes will have to do it without arguably their most versatile player.

Junior forward Keita Bates-Diop will have surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left leg suffered before the season and miss the rest of the year, Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said after Thursday's game.

Matta said the hope is to redshirt Bates-Diop this year, which means he'd have two more years of eligibility left after this season.

"That's a punch in the gut to us," Matta said. "It is what it is, and we gotta keep moving forward. In a game like that, he can help us. But injuries are gonna happen. It looks like we're gonna be able to redshirt him. I feel awful for Keita and I'm thankful for what he gave us in terms of playing with a lot of pain. I told him, 'I don't need that in my career now. I'm not gonna play a guy who's injured.' He's done."

Bates-Diop missed Thursday's game with what Ohio State originally called "leg soreness."

He had missed five games earlier in the season due to a high ankle sprain to his right leg suffered during a game against Providence on Nov. 11. He returned to the lineup on Dec. 6 against Florida Atlantic, and averaged 21.3 minutes per game over six games leading up to Thursday night.

Matta said Bates-Diop had been playing through considerable pain.

He suffered the stress fracture during the summer, and missed two months leading into the season. Matta said the original plan was to bring Bates-Diop along slowly and have him healthy right around the time he suffered the ankle injury to his opposite leg against Providence.

The stress fracture never healed the way they were hoping, and Bates-Diop will have surgery next week.

"The other night, he hasn't been the same," Matta said. "We'll do the right thing by him, get him taken care of and get him back next year."

In nine games this season, the 6-foot-7 junior wing was averaging 9.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor.

His combination of length, athleticism and ability to stretch the floor to the 3-point line made him arguably Ohio State's most versatile player. Matta said earlier this week that Bates-Diop had been playing the best basketball of his career before the stress fracture, and the thought was he'd be poised for a breakout year in his second season as a full-time starter.

Instead this is another setback for a player who missed the last two games of last season due to mono, and missed two games during a freshman season in which he was seldom used.

"Accountability is one of the greatest attributes an individual can have in life," Matta said. "Coaches have to be accountable, players have to be accountable. We're down -- I remember when David Lighty broke his foot and I thought , 'Anybody but him' -- and Keita is kind of that glue guy. He's our best defender."