Riding a seemingly improbable eight-game winning streak and a perfect 9-0 record at the midpoint of the Big Ten regular season schedule, Chris Holtmann's basketball Buckeyes find themselves ranked No. 13 in the land.
The return to national hoops relevancy for the first time since the 2012-13 season when the Buckeyes carved a path to the Elite Eight to finish No. 6 in the final Coaches Poll represents a shockingly sudden change for a program that failed to make the NCAA Tournament over the previous two seasons, compiling a 38-29 overall record including an 18-18 mark in Big Ten play, forcing an end to the Thad Matta era.
The season-to-date success achieved from Holtmann's squad comes on the heels of another football season in which Urban Meyer had his program in the thick of the College Football Playoff race before ultimately settling for a 12-2 overall finish featuring a Big Ten title and a comfortable 24-7 win over USC in the Cotton Bowl on the way to a final ranking of No. 6 in the Coaches Poll.
Could Holtmann's first season, coupled with Meyer's success across the Olentangy River signal the impending return of a time when both Ohio State football and basketball are among the nation's elite?
Such same-season, dual-program success isn't an unheard of scenario in Columbus but is a rare enough feat that it should be recognized accordingly.
| FOOTBALL YEAR | RECORD | COACHES POLL FINAL RANK | POSTSEASON | HOOPS YEAR | RECORD | COACHES POLL FINAL RANK | POSTSEASON |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 12-2 | 5 | WON COTTON BOWL | 2017-18* | 18-4* | 13* | TBD |
| 2016 | 11-2 | 6 | LOST CFP SEMIFINAL | 2016-17 | 17-15 | UNRANKED | NONE |
| 2015 | 12-1 | 4 | WON FIESTA BOWL | 2015-16 | 21-14 | UNRANKED | NIT 2ND ROUND |
| 2014 | 14-1 | 1 | WON CFP TITLE | 2014-15 | 24-11 | UNRANKED | NCAA 2ND ROUND |
| 2013 | 12-2 | 10 | LOST ORANGE BOWL | 2013-14 | 25-10 | UNRANKED | NCAA 1ST ROUND |
| 2012 | 12-0 | 3 (AP) | INELIGIBLE | 2012-13 | 29-8 | 6 | ELITE EIGHT |
| 2011 | 6-7 | UNRANKED | LOST GATOR BOWL | 2011-12 | 31-8 | 3 | FINAL FOUR |
| 2010 | 12-1 | 5 | WON SUGAR BOWL | 2010-11 | 34-3 | 5 | SWEET 16 |
| 2009 | 11-2 | 5 | WON ROSE BOWL | 2009-10 | 29-8 | 11 | SWEET 16 |
| 2008 | 10-3 | 11 | LOST FIESTA BOWL | 2008-09 | 22-11 | UNRANKED | NCAA 1ST ROUND |
| 2007 | 11-2 | 4 | LOST BCS TITLE GAME | 2007-08 | 24-13 | UNRANKED | NIT CHAMPS |
| 2006 | 12-1 | 2 | LOST BCS TITLE GAME | 2006-07 | 35-4 | 2 | NCAA RUNNER-UP |
Going back nearly 60 years, a few runs qualify as worthy of mention starting with Fred Taylor's legendary 1959-60 hoops squad capturing the only national championship in program history followed by Woody Hayes' 1960 footballers finishing No. 8 in the Coaches Poll. Following the football team's success, Taylor's 1960-61 team returned to the final four and ultimately settled for national runner-up status before Woody's 1961 team went on to win the national title marking a stellar run for both programs.
From there, you have to fast-forward to where it wasn't exactly "same-season" success but Taylor's 1967-68 team headlined by Bill Hosket and Dave Sorenson advanced to the Final Four before Hayes' 1968 Super Sophs capped a perfect 10-0 national championship season with a 27-16 win over O.J. Simpson and USC in the Rose Bowl.
Just over 10 years later in 1979, more modest but still notable success was realized as Earle Bruce's inaugural squad headed into the Rose Bowl with a perfect 11-0 record before USC's Charles White capped a 247-yard rushing day with the game-winning touchdown in a 17-16 Buckeye loss dropping them to No. 4 in the final Coaches Poll.
That same season, Eldon Miller's basketball team finished second in the Big Ten, earned a 4-seed in the NCAA tourney, and made it to the Sweet Sixteen which, back then, meant they won one game before falling to an 8th-seeded UCLA team that eventually had to vacate its national runner-up finish.
During an even more modest same-season run, Earle Bruce's 1986 Buckeyes captained by Chris Spielman did their part going 10-3 and finishing No. 7 in the Coaches Poll after handling Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl before Gary Williams' first Ohio State squad finished just sixth in the Big Ten but did advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, taking down 8-seed Kentucky before nearly upsetting No. 1 seed Georgetown. Dennis Hopson's crew led the Hoyas by 21 points in the second half before a total collapse gave John Thompson's crew an 82-79 win.
Between 1987 and Matta's arrival in 2004, just one episode of same-season success was had as John Cooper's 1998 wrecking crew finished a disappointing No. 2 in the Coaches Poll before Michael Redd and Scoonie Penn carried Ohio State to the Final Four in Jim O'Brien's second season at the helm. NCAA sanctions wiped that season from the record books but not our memory banks.
Enter Matta and his Thad Five which marched all the way to the 2007 NCAA championship game in his third season on the heels of Jim Tressel's 2006 squad finishing No. 2 in the final Coaches Poll after getting humbled by Florida in the BCS national title game following a perfect 12-0 start.
Matta's next two seasons were lackluster while Tressel took his program to another BCS title game (a 38-24 loss to LSU) and a No. 11 ranking in 2008 after a 10-3 season ended with a 24-21 loss to Texas.
Jim Tressel opened up the playbook for Terrelle Pryor as OSU handled Oregon in the 2010 Rose Bowl. (Gottesman Photography)
Things revved back up after that however as Tressel's 2009 team went 11-2, won the Rose Bowl and earned a No. 5 ranking in the final Coaches Poll while Matta followed that up with a 29-8 season ending in the Sweet Sixteen and final ranking of No. 11 as Evan Turner captured National Player of the Year accolades.
The following football season, Tressel's last at Ohio State, the Buckeyes went 12-1 and exercised an SEC demon with a thrilling 31-26 defeat of Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl to earn a No. 5 final ranking. It looked like Matta's 2010-11 team was primed to one-up its football counterparts as the Buckeyes ran through the Big Ten with a 16-2 mark winning both the regular and postseason conference titles to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament but fell to 4th-seeded Kentucky in a 62-60 heartbreaker in an East Region semifinal to finish the season at 34-3.
Matta's team rebounded a year later to reach the Final Four but it came after Luke Fickell's one and only season as head coach as the Buckeyes limped to a 6-7 mark capped by a 24-17 loss to and equally awful Florida team in the Gator Bowl.
Meyer's arrival ahead of the 2012 season meant OSU football fans wouldn't suffer for long as his inaugural squad went a perfect 12-0 to finish at No. 3 in the final AP Poll though the bowl-ineligible Buckeyes were denied a shot at even greater heights. That winter, Matta's last truly legit team went 29-8, won the Big Ten tournament, earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and marched all the way to the Elite Eight before falling to 9th-seeded Wichita State.
Meyer's program would do its part over the following five seasons capturing a national title, winning at least 11 games each year, and finishing sixth or better in the final Coaches Poll four times including last season's No. 5 ranking after their 12-2 record included wins over Penn State, Michigan State, Michigan, Wisconsin and USC. In fact, Ohio State football's worst season since the hoops team made that Elite Eight run in 2013 came the following fall when the Buckeyes finished No. 10 in the Coaches Poll after a 12-2 season culminated in a 40-35 loss to Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
Meanwhile, each of Matta's four squads during that same span failed to finish in the Top 25, lost increasing double-digit games, and failed to make the NCAA tournament over the final two seasons capped by a 2016-17 season in which the Buckeyes finished 17-15 and failed to make the NIT signaling the end of what is still the greatest coaching era in the history of OSU basketball.
But the sun is shining once again on the Buckeye basketball program as Chris Holtmann has his first squad showing improved chemistry, commitment and intelligence. Quick to acknowledge the roster's key players are all holdovers from the Matta era, Holtmann has indeed put his own stamp on a team currently sitting 18-4 overall as part of that 9-0 mark in Big Ten play.
Though quality wins are scarce outside of the upset of then-No. 1 Michigan State almost three weeks ago, it certainly feels like Holtmann is setting the foundation for another run of Buckeye hoops prominence and there's certainly no realistic end in sight to Meyer keeping Ohio State football among the nation's elite programs.
While it remains to be seen if both programs can actually accomplish the type of same-season success we've seen in the not-to-distant past, it finallyseems realistic to believe it's possible.
