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College Hoops
A College Basketball Reflection
This Is Ohio State Basketball
Holtmann's Buckeyes Compete To Earn Respect
By CEFarmer
At the start of the college basketball season, if you checked the rankings. you would have found the Ohio State men's basketball ranked as the 11th best team out of 14 Big Ten Schools.
That meant voters selected 10 other teams in the Big Ten Conference to finish higher than this year’s Buckeyes basketball team.
According to the pre-season rankings: Michigan State, Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin Indiana, Purdue, Maryland, Penn State and Iowa were predicted to finish ahead of Ohio State .
Perhaps Ohio State's youthful roster of seven players who receive significant minutes including senior (CJ Jackson); junior (Andre Wesson), sophomores (Kaleb Wesson and Kyle Young); freshmen (Luther Muhammad and Washington Jr. and graduate transfer (Keyshawn Woods) was the reason behind the ranking.
Maybe what Coach Chris Holtman did last year with the Buckeyes, surprising many by winning a Big Ten Title and also making a run in the NCAA Tournament, was not enough to convince voters about this season.
The Ohio State Buckeyes appeared headed to prove the naysayers wrong early, by winning 11 of their first 12 games (11-1) were ranked 13th in the country, with only two other Big 10 teams placed ahead of them nationally, Michigan and Michigan State. Ohio State earned early wins over Cincinnati, Creighton, Stanford , Minnesota and UCLA on a neutral floor.
College basketball is filled with ups and downs, conference play in January was difficult for Ohio State, as they suffered a five game losing streak, which included three losses at home.
After losing starting forward Kyle Young to an injury vs. Maryland, that is expected to keep him out for an extended period, the Buckeyes' attempt to get back on track became even more difficult.
Reserves (Jaedon LeDee), Justin (Ahrens), Musa (Jallow) are being asked to contribute by playing more minutes to fill the void Young's absence has created.
This Ohio State team is a tight knit group with good chemistry, that plays fearlessly regardless of the opponent they face. Which is a testament to the coaching staff's basketball philosophy of playing tough defense, moving the ball quickly on offense and a belief that no player should be afraid to take an open shot.
Only time will tell how things could play out and what the final standings will be.
While Ohio State continues to face teams with more experienced players, the group's grit and toughness serves as a major factor in the Buckeyes competing for and earning wins later in the season.
