Understandably, most Ohio State basketball fans had a lot more confidence about the Buckeyes’ chances of making deep tournament runs in March three weeks ago than they do right now.
The Buckeyes were 18-4 and a projected No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament after they beat Penn State for their seventh straight win on Feb. 18. Their Feb. 21 game against Michigan was subsequently billed as a matchup of two of college basketball’s four best teams in which Ohio State had a chance to assert itself as a national championship contender.
Instead, Ohio State is now 18-8 after finishing the regular season with four straight losses against Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa and Illinois.