The Ohio State men's basketball team has come in at No. 20 in the Associated Press preseason poll.
The Buckeyes are the third-highest ranked Big Ten team, behind Wisconsin (No. 3, unanimous pick to win the Big Ten) and No. 18 Michigan State. Nebraska at No. 21 and Michigan at No. 24 round out the Big Ten's five ranked teams to start the season.
Kentucky checks in at No. 1 overall as Arizona, Wisconsin, Duke and Kansas round out the top five.
Ohio State will have two matchups with teams in the preseason Top 10 during its non-conference schedule: at No. 8 Louisville on Dec. 2 and against No. 6 North Carolina in Chicago on Dec. 20.
The Buckeyes are coming off a season where they finished 25-10 overall and were knocked out of the NCAA tournament by Dayton in the second round.
Ohio State is holding an open scrimmage at the Schottenstein Center at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday prior to the football game against Illinois. The Buckeyes will host an exhibition against Walsh on Nov. 9 before opening up the regular season against UMass-Lowell on Nov. 14.
The full AP poll can be seen below:
| RANK | team | 1st | points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KENTUCKY | 52 | 1,604 |
| 2 | ARIZONA | 5 | 1,518 |
| 3 | WISCONSIN | 8 | 1,483 |
| 4 | DUKE | 0 | 1,415 |
| 5 | KANSAS | 0 | 1,346 |
| 6 | NORTH CAROLINA | 0 | 1,274 |
| 7 | FLORIDA | 0 | 1,153 |
| 8 | LOUISVILLE | 0 | 1,114 |
| 9 | VIRGINIA | 0 | 1,090 |
| 10 | TEXAS | 0 | 1,061 |
| 11 | WICHITA STATE | 0 | 1,027 |
| 12 | VILLANOVA | 0 | 885 |
| 13 | GONZAGA | 0 | 840 |
| 14 | IOWA STATE | 0 | 781 |
| 15 | VCU | 0 | 574 |
| 16 | SAN DIEGO STATE | 0 | 560 |
| 17 | UCONN | 0 | 552 |
| 18 | MICHIGAN STATE | 0 | 521 |
| 19 | OKLAHOMA | 0 | 426 |
| 20 | OHIO STATE | 0 | 340 |
| 21 | NEBRASKA | 0 | 309 |
| 22 | SMU | 0 | 285 |
| 23 | SYRACUSE | 0 | 178 |
| 24 | MICHIGAN | 0 | 167 |
| 25 | UTAH | 0 | 98 |
