Ohio State basketball is starting to get it together right at the same time that more people start to pay attention. You can easily make a case that college basketball should be a one semester sport, or at the very least move the season tip-off way back. A lot of people don’t pay attention to college hoops until the conference season commences in late December/early January.
There’s just too much to compete with when you’re going against the holidays and football season. College sports are kind of cannibalizing themselves in November and December with the overlap season too.
However, when the holiday parties are through and league play begins, more and more people begin to check in. That’s good for the 2015-16 Ohio State basketball team, because they had a rough November and early December. However, on December 19th, they got a signature win over Kentucky (RPI 12) and they’re off to a 3-0 start in league play following a decisive victory at Northwestern.
The Buckeyes came to Evanston and beat the Wildcats 65-56 tonight in a contest that sort of establishes who might be in the middle of the Big Ten pack, contending for a NCAA Tournament berth. It was also a contest that was much more dull and tedious to watch than it sounds.
The B1G’s “champions league,” of top four, consists of Iowa, Michigan State, Maryland and Purdue. Then you have a few teams who will battle it out for the conference’s fifth, sixth, and maybe a seventh, maybe, tourney bids.
Tonight Ohio State basketball put themselves on the proper path as sharpshooter Kam Williams led the way with 21 points on 5-9 three point shooting. The rest of the Buckeyes combined to shoot 0-13 from beyond the arc.
“You just can’t have those breakdowns if you want to be a good team,” said Northwestern Coach Chris Collins on defending Williams.
“It’s disappointing we came in very confident that we were going to get a win and we didn’t get it done.”
Northwestern started 13-1 against an early season schedule that was softer than 1000 thread count Egyptian Cotton sheets. They’ve lost the last two, albeit without their best player, Senior Center Alex Olah. Without the Romanian 7-footer, Northwestern has become especially dependent on the perimeter. Said guard Bryant McIntosh after the game:
“Without Olah, we just don’t have the inside presence. That’s not a knock on Dererk (Pardon) or Joey Van (Zegeren). Olah is just an all Big Ten center, it’s tough to take him out.”
Collins said that Olah will likely miss Northwestern’s next game Saturday at Minnesota, and he’ll be re-evaluated at the next of the week. he could come back next week.
Northwestern’s hole in the middle allowed Ohio State center Trevor Thompson to put up a double double. The Buckeyes are really building momentum now having won seven in a row. This followed a dreadful 4-5 start that although it’s a hole, it’s not as deep a hole as it seems. Texas-Arlington has an RPI of 28 and Louisiana Tech an RPI of 56. The Memphis loss (119) hurts, but the Kentucky win negates that.
Ohio State basketball has a ton of opportunities for signature wins coming up. They get both Maryland and Michigan State twice, plus a visit to Purdue and a home date with Iowa. If they win at least two of those, and go finish 11-7 in the league (meaning they’d have to go just 8-7 the rest of the way) they’re in.
Our good friends over at Hammer and Rails, SB Nation’s Purdue community, do a Big Ten basketball power rankings, so that I don’t have to. Well, they do their power rankings for their own reasons that have nothing to do with me, but the point is I would rather not do a power rankings myself, and their edition is really very good.
Here’s the link to the full power rankings. We included H&R’s Northwestern and Illini basketball synopsis below.
NCAA Contenders
7. Ohio State (11-5, 3-0) – Here come the Buckeyes. They can be this year’s Purdue in that they have some bad non-conference losses only come through the league and earn a bid right back. This week they go to Northwestern and Indiana, two teams that they might be battling in the middle of the pack all year.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram