A catastrophic track continues to develop for Chris Holtmann and Co.
After a dominant win over Northwestern earlier in the new year, things went downhill fast for the Buckeyes, who lost their fifth straight game on Wednesday to one of the Big Ten’s hardest-to-beat teams. Ohio State started the season 10-3 with a 2-0 record in conference play. The Buckeyes, now staring at the last 13 games on their league list, sit 13th in the Big Ten with a 10-8 record that challenges their NCAA tournament potential.
It’s not the first time that Holtmann has suffered such a slip-up. After a 12-1 start to the 2018-19 season, the Buckeyes fell five straight and six out of seven in January to drop out of the AP Top 25 for the rest of the year. Ohio State went the rest of the way in the regular season, going 5-6 and winning a game in the Big Ten tournament to earn an 11th place finish in the Big Dance.
That team finished with a win in the first round of the NCAA tournament, which is as far as any Holtmann-led Buckeye group went in March.
But the level of competition that Ohio State lost to in the five-game chute four years ago was a notch above the teams the Buckeyes have beaten recently. Yes, Purdue was the country’s No. 1 team (and still the top team in the Big Ten) when the Boilermakers evaded Columbus with a two-point win on Jan. 5. And yes, the Rutgers team Ohio State went into overtime Sunday sitting second in the conference standings.
However, in two of their last three games, Ohio State fell to teams entering those games ranked among the bottom two teams in the Big Ten. Minnesota were the only team without a conference win when they faced the Buckeyes in Columbus last Thursday. Controversial game-changing decision aside, the Gophers left the Schottenstein Center with a win. Nebraska was second-bottom in conference standings before edging out a 63-60 win over Ohio State on their home court on Wednesday.
Even Maryland, which gave Ohio State a seven-point loss at College Park on Jan. 8, is now 12th in the conference with a Big Ten record of 2-4.
In 2019, two of Ohio State’s five straight losses went to eventual Co-Big Ten regular-season champions (Michigan State and Purdue), and two of the other three went to teams that finished in the top six in conference standings ( Maryland and Iowa). If you factor in the Buckeyes’ sixth loss in that seven-game streak, Ohio State went up against three teams that ranked in the top 20 in the AP poll at the time, with two of them finishing eighth or higher .
And that’s the problem for this year’s Buckeye team; the road doesn’t get any easier from here. The Feb. 19 rematch with Purdue is the only ranked team left on the Buckeyes’ roster, but there are tough failures throughout the schedule.
Next up is 12-6 Iowa (sixth in the Big Ten), who will go on a four-game winning streak in Columbus on Saturday. Two of those wins are Maryland and Rutgers, both of whom have beaten the Buckeyes in the past 10 days. After that, Ohio State plays Illinois (fourth in the conference), where Brad Underwood and company have lost just one game all year.
Ohio State will cap off January with an away game against Indiana, once a top-10 team in the country that has a double-digit win over then-No. 18 North Carolina (which also beat Ohio State that season) on its resume. The Hoosiers just got kicked out back then – No. 18 Wisconsin up 18 points over the weekend.
The Buckeyes open against two of the Big Ten’s top five teams (at home against Wisconsin and in Michigan) in February before hosting teams from the Northwest and Michigan States, which will also not be easy games.
Ohio State, which was a Dark Horse Big Ten title contender less than three weeks ago, is now flirting with the bottom rung of the conference. The Buckeyes are firmly in the bubble when it comes to NCAA tournament talks, and as things stand Wednesday’s loss ensures more analysts will have Ohio State looking outward.
The Trojans, Terrapins, Broncos and Wildcats make the cut pic.twitter.com/PCEihP1qzY
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) January 17, 2023
With each successive loss, it becomes harder and harder to see the narrow margins of loss the Buckeyes have suffered as a silver lining. While just one of Ohio State’s eight losses came by a double-digit margin, it has won just two of nine games decided in single digits this season.
Ohio State’s prospects have plenty of time to change, but its recent track record hasn’t inspired much confidence in that possibility. It’s time for every optimistic follower to hit the panic button.