COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio State basketball team will start the most crucial stretch of the regular season with its toughest week of the Big Ten schedule.
The Buckeyes have rebounded from a dreadful January by winning five of their last six games, which now has them ranked No. 25 in the AP poll. They’re 18th in the NET rankings, which carry more weight for the NCAA selection committee. The system replaced RPI last season and evaluates a team’s strength of schedule and the quality of its wins and losses.
Ohio State has opportunities to guarantee its NCAA Tournament ticket, as five of its final six games will be against quality opponents. It wasn’t in that same position halfway through February last season despite the similarity in records.
“We’re very different when you look at the quality of wins across the board, it’s a significant difference,”
coach Chris Holtmann said. “Every game at this point of the year for all of us in the Big Ten we look at as being crucial, but the seasons are very different even though they can appear on the surface to be similar in a lot of ways.”
Obviously for the Buckeyes (17-8, 7-7), winning all six to finish the regular season 23-8 overall and 13-7 in the Big Ten is the goal. Such a finish would likely mean a top-four seed. But that would be an improbable feat given the rollercoaster of a season they’ve had. A much more likely scenario is they split the remaining schedule.
Nebraska is the only game of the six that should be a given. But it’s the other five opponents who matter most. That starts with a trip to Iowa City to face No. 20 Iowa.
The Hawkeyes are a ranked team whose only home loss was to Penn State, which climbed to No. 9 in the AP poll entering this week. They boast the Big Ten’s top scorer in Luka Garza, whose 23.7 points per game are combined with 9.7 rebounds. The junior forward is the only player in the conference averaging 20 or more points per game, and has reached that mark in every Big Ten game.
“I think being a year older has helped him,” Holtmann said. “It’s clear he put in tremendous work in the offseason with his conditioning, his fitness, his shooting. He’s obviously incredibly physical, but I just think his motor is what people point to when they watch him that makes him so special.”
Following that is a second chance against No. 7 Maryland at the Schottenstein Center on Sunday. The Terrapins won the first meeting 67-55 during the Buckeyes’ 1-6 stretch in January. One month later, Maryland remains the best team in the conference, but Ohio State is in better shape than it was when it traveled to the Xfinity Center.
Winning five of its last six games despite losing freshman D.J. Carton, its most talented perimeter player, is why Ohio State is ranked and trending upward for the first time since December.
“With every game going forward, every game is going to be important at this point,” Kyle Young said. “We have a great team coming up tomorrow and then another one on Sunday. With every game, we have to come in with that mindset that we need that win. Want to play to our best every game. … We’re on a good roll right now. We just need to stay with what we’re doing.”
Note: This post has been corrected to reflect that Garza is the only player in the Big Ten averaging more than 20 points per game. Many players nationally are averaging over 20 points per game in scoring.
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