Ohio State NCAA Tournament resume takes serious hit: Where do Buckeyes stand?

COLUMBUS — Ohio State was safely in the NCAA Tournament as of Thursday morning. By the time head coach Jake Diebler and the Buckeyes left the Schottenstein Center late last night, they’re now squarely on the bubble.

The Buckeyes were blown out by a bad Northwestern team at home on Thursday night, easily the most embarrassing loss of Diebler’s young head coaching career. Final score: Northwestern 70, Ohio State 49. Oof.

Sure, Ohio State already has impressive wins against Texas (neutral court), Kentucky (neutral court), Purdue (at Purdue) and Maryland (home). But the losses are piling up, and the NCAA Tournament selection committee will certainly take note of the laughable dud of a performance — the advanced numbers and metrics already have.

Ohio State fell four spots in both the NET Rankings and KenPom, down from 28 to 32 thanks to that loss to Northwestern.

Ohio State NCAA Tournament resume

NET: 32 (down four spots after loss to Northwestern)
KenPom: 32 (down four spots after loss to Northwestern)
Key wins: vs. Kentucky (neutral site), vs. Texas (neutral site), at Purdue, vs. Maryland
Bad losses: vs. Indiana, vs. Pittsburgh, vs. Oregon (all home), vs. Northwestern (home)

Ohio State is the highest-ranked 12-loss team in KenPom by 22 spots and the highest-ranked 12-loss team in NET by 20 spots. The Buckeyes were also the highest-ranked team with at least 10 losses in both KenPom and NET but the loss to Northwestern knocked them off that perch. Illinois is the highest-ranked team with double-digit losses in both KenPom and NET rankings.

With four regular season games remaining, Ohio State can still bolster its resume to make the tournament for the first time since the 2021-2022 season when Chris Holtmann and the Buckeyes lost in the Round of 32. Upcoming games at UCLA and USC will be massive for this Ohio State team; UCLA isn’t playing well and could serve as a great chance for the Buckeyes to earn another notable victory for the selection committee.

Ohio State will also face fellow bubble teams Nebraska (at home) and Indiana (on the road) to close out the regular season before the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis in a couple of weeks.

All four regular season games will be critical for this Ohio State team and its NCAA Tournament hopes. Win three of them, and the Buckeyes are likely in the tournament. Split them and it gets dicey. Suffer a late-season slide, and the program will once again head to the NIT for the second straight season — and continue its NCAA Tournament drought.

Ohio State remaining basketball schedule

Feb. 23 at UCLA
Feb. 26 at USC
March 4 vs. Nebraska
March 8 at Indiana
March 12-16 Big Ten Tournament (Indianapolis)

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