This isn’t exactly the matchup most assumed it would be before the season.
Fresh off a run to the national championship game in the NCAA Tournament last spring, North Carolina started the year as the preseason No. 1 team in the nation. Ohio State, on the other hand, began 2022-23 unranked with relatively undefined expectations for its performance.
Six weeks later, the Buckeyes are the team with a number next to its name while the Tar Heels enter Saturday’s CBS Sports Classic contest on the heels of four losses in their past six games, freefalling out of the AP Top 25 in the process.