On Monday, October 21, 2019, AP released their top 25, and Ohio State Basketball will debut as the 18th ranked team:
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball/2019/10/107975/ohio...
https://collegebasketball.ap.org/poll
On Thursday, October 24, 2019, USA Today released their Coaches' Poll and Ohio State Basketball will debut as the 16th ranked team.
So more information about the Coaches Poll:
The top five is the same as the AP Poll: Michigan State, the favorite to win the Big Ten and one of the National Championship basketball contenders, is the preseason #1, followed by Kentucky at #2, Kansas at #3, Duke at #4, and Louisville rounds out the top 5. Michigan State received 30 of the 32 first place votes, while Kansas and Duke each received one first place vote.
The top 10 is slightly different: The Coaches' Poll has North Carolina is just outside the top 10 at #11, while defending National Champion Virginia debuts in the top ten at #9. The AP Poll has North Carolina at #9, with Virginia outside the top ten at #11. Florida (#6), Gonzaga (#7), fellow Big Ten member Maryland (#8), and Villanova (#10) round out the top ten in the Coaches Poll.
The rest of the Top 25 Coaches' Poll is similar, but different. The only difference is that Tennessee debuts at #25 in the Coaches' Poll, while VCU debuts at #25 in the AP Top 25.
For other Big Ten teams not mentioned in the Coaches' Poll, Purdue checks in at #22, while TTUN, Wisconsin, and Illinois all received votes for the Coaches' Top 25.
Ohio State was in their rebuilding year last season and made their Coaches' Poll debut on November 19, 2018. After starting the season 12-1, they lost three straight and dropped out of the Top 25 Coaches' Poll (and AP Poll) on January 14, 2019, where they eventually lost six of seven games in January 2019. Despite a 6-12 record in January, February, and March 2019 of their regular season, Ohio State won their second round game of the 2019 Big Ten Tournament vs Indiana and lost to Michigan State in the 2019 Big Ten Quarterfinals. They made the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament as an at-large team with a #11 seed in the Midwest Region, upsetting #6 seed Iowa State in the first round and losing to #3 seed Houston in the second round, and finished 20-15 overall with a tie for 8th place in the Big Ten (8th overall with the tie-breaker to Indiana).
Here is what the Preseason Coaches' Poll looks like (First Place Votes in Parenthesis):
| Rank | Team | Conference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan State | Big Ten | 792 (30) |
| 2 | Kentucky | SEC | 734 |
| 3 | Kansas | Big 12 | 687 (1) |
| 4 | Duke | ACC | 683 (1) |
| 5 | Louisville | ACC | 670 |
| 6 | Florida | SEC | 619 |
| 7 | Gonzaga | West Coast | 544 |
| 8 | Maryland | Big Ten | 536 |
| 9 | Virginia | ACC | 532 |
| 10 | Villanova | Big East | 531 |
| 11 | North Carolina | ACC | 503 |
| 12 | Texas Tech | Big 12 | 417 |
| 13 | Seton Hall | Big East | 403 |
| 14 | Oregon | Pac-12 | 344 |
| 15 | Memphis | AAC | 331 |
| 16 | Ohio State | Big Ten | 280 |
| 17 | Arizona | Pac-12 | 229 |
| 18 | Baylor | Big 12 | 228 |
| 19 | Utah State | Mountain West | 218 |
| 20 | Saint Mary's (CA) | West Coast | 163 |
| 21 | Xavier | Big East | 149 |
| 22 | Purdue | Big Ten | 123 |
| 23 | Auburn | SEC | 105 |
| 24 | LSU | SEC | 86 |
| 25 | Tennessee | SEC | 76 |
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/polls/coaches-poll/
Here is the conference breakdown of the Preseason Top 25 Coaches' Poll:
| Conference | # of Ranked Teams | Highest Ranked Team |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | 5 | Kentucky (#2) |
| Big Ten | 4 | Michigan State (#1) |
| ACC | 4 | Duke (#4) |
| Big 12 | 3 | Kansas (#3) |
| Big East | 3 | Villanova (#10) |
| Pac-12 | 2 | Oregon (#14) |
| West Coast | 2 | Gonzaga (#7) |
| AAC | 1 | Memphis (#14) |
| Mountain West | 1 | Utah State (#19) |
The AP Poll does not release their Top 25 after the conclusion of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, while the Coaches' Poll does release their final Top 25 after the conclusion of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.
Ohio State will tip off their exhibition game vs the Cedarville Yellow Jackets (an NCAA Division II team in Cedarville, OH, located within the Dayton, OH Metropolitan Area, east of Dayton) on Wednesday October 30, 2019. They will open their regular season on November 6, 2019 vs Cincinnati at home, tipping off at 8:30 EST on FS1.
