Through 13 games this season, the Ohio State men’s basketball team owned a 10-3 record with solid, resume-strengthening wins over Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Rutgers, and Northwestern. The Buckeyes also played a close, competitive game against San Diego State (now 22-5) and gave both Duke (at Cameron Indoor) and North Carolina (last season’s national runner-up) all those teams could handle.
All three OSU losses were justifiable, if not expected, because Chris Holtmann was working with an almost entirely new roster, albeit one with plenty of talent. Figuring things out with four freshman, three transfers, and one holdover returning from significant injury – all on the same roster – was never going to be easy.