A dominant November. An impressive December. An abysmal January.
Welcome to déjà vu in Columbus.
For the second year in a row, Ohio State’s men's basketball team opened up its season with a strong performance in the non-conference portion of the schedule, shot up in the polls and proceeded to follow that up with an utter collapse in January. Almost poetically, for the second straight season the Buckeyes will enter February with a 13-7 overall record, having lost six of their past eight games and sitting outside of the Associated Press top-25 poll.
Chris Holtmann never likes in-season NCAA tournament bubble talk, and once again he never could have suspected in mid-December that it would be a narrative just a month and a half later.