College football season reached its end with the final whistle of Monday night’s national championship game. Attention for collegiate postseasons now shifts to the sport of basketball.
Keeping that in mind, we’re starting a new weekly series on Eleven Warriors tracking Ohio State basketball’s progress toward making the NCAA Tournament and advancing its seeding.
It’ll also be a chance to view both the Buckeyes’ standing in the Big Ten and the overall outlook of the conference.
NCAA Tournament outlook
Through two months of its 2023-24 campaign, Ohio State is in a secure position when it comes to making the tournament but could serve to improve its standing if and when it gets there.
| Overall Record | 12-3 |
| Home | 8-1 |
| Away | 0-2 |
| NET | 44th |
| Q1 Record | 1-0 |
| Q2 Record | 0-3 |
| Strength of Schedule | 230th |
At 12-3 through 15 games, the Buckeyes lack depth on their resume but have played solid enough to be firmly in the field of 68 right now.
Per Bracket Matrix, which averages the results of 51 different bracket projections, Ohio State is currently projected as a No. 8 seed in the tourney. That includes a placement as a 7 seed according to the famed “Bracketology” of ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. Forty-nine of the 51 projections have the Buckeyes in the tournament at one seed line or another.
While it’s not a great spot to make a deep run from, it’s at least a bit of cushion from the bubble.
NET rankings are among the top factors that the NCAA Tournament selection committee looks at when forming its bracket, both for the strength of a team and in evaluating resumes for the exact quality of wins and losses.
The Buckeyes were 44th in the NET rankings as of Monday night. Last season, just two teams ranked in the top 44 of NET missed the tournament, those being Rutgers (40th) and Oklahoma State (43rd).
Alabama is the only squad Ohio State has played from the first quadrant of teams in the NET rankings, with the Crimson Tide currently No. 6 despite a 9-5 record. That includes a 92-81 loss to the Buckeyes in what is the Scarlet and Gray’s biggest resume-boosting win as it stands.
All three of the Buckeyes’ losses came to teams in Quadrant 2. Quadrants vary depending on whether a team is at home, on a neutral court or on the road, which is the reason why Texas A&M, ranked 39th, is considered a Quadrant 2 loss, the same as Indiana (98th) and Penn State (128th). Ohio State played the Aggies at home but the Nittany Lions and Hoosiers in front of hostile crowds in its only two true road games of the season so far.
Outside of the Alabama game, all of Ohio State’s other wins fall in Quadrant 3 or 4. The Buckeyes get a shot at a Quadrant 1 win against Wisconsin on Wednesday and a Quadrant 2 win at Michigan on Monday, giving them a chance to give their résumé a significant boost over the next week.
Big Ten Outlook
At 2-2 in conference play following their loss at Indiana, the Buckeyes are currently tied for seventh in the Big Ten with Nebraska and Penn State.
With each team having played either three or four league games to this point, Wisconsin is the only squad with an undefeated conference record at 3-0. No. 1-ranked Purdue is still favored by many to win the Big Ten and is tied for second in the conference standings with Minnesota and Indiana at 3-1.
Minnesota’s three conference victories are already more than the two the Golden Gophers turned in last year, so Ohio State’s 84-74 victory over them may have made more headway in the league than first thought. Rutgers, the Buckeyes’ other Big Ten win, is off to a 0-3 start in conference play.
The top 10 teams in the Big Ten Tournament get first-round byes while the top four get an additional second-round bye, so as it stands Ohio State would start its tourney journey on day two in Minneapolis.
