The Ohio State men’s basketball team watches second-year guard Bowen Hardman (15) during a three-point contest at the team’s meet and greet The Schottenstein Center Oct. 19. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
The official preseason Associated Press poll for NCAA men’s basketball was released Oct. 16, revealing the top 25 teams in the country.
The schedule release marked the countdown to the start of college basketball, which begins Nov. 6. The rankings included three Big Ten teams — No. 3 Purdue, No. 4 Michigan State and No. 25 Illinois.
Despite being unranked in the preseason poll, Ohio State’s tough schedule will provide many opportunities for the team to prove itself as it will face five different ranked opponents throughout the season.
The Buckeyes will take on two of the preseason top-25 teams at home in the Schottenstein Center when they face Illinois Jan. 30, 2024, and Purdue Feb. 18. Ohio State then travels to Michigan State Feb. 25.
Ohio State’s first game will tip off at home against Oakland Nov. 6. It will then get tested immediately after as it faces No. 15 Texas A&M at home in its second game Nov. 10 and No. 24 Alabama at a neutral site later on that month.
This year will mark head coach Chris Holtmann’s seventh season coaching the Buckeyes. In two of the three seasons where Holtmann’s squad wasn’t ranked heading into the season, the Buckeyes made the NCAA tournament and advanced to the second round.
In the 2017-18 season, Holtmann’s first season in the position, Ohio State started the season unranked but made the NCAA tournament as the fifth seed. It then knocked off South Dakota State in the first round, before falling to fourth-seeded Gonzaga in the second.
The following year, Ohio State once again qualified for the tournament despite not being ranked in the preseason poll. The Buckeyes were the 11th seed in the tournament and had upset sixth-seeded Iowa State in the first round before ultimately falling to Houston in the second round.
The Buckeyes have made it to the NCAA tournament in four out of the last five seasons — not including the COVID-19 year — winning three games in the tournament over that stretch. The Buckeyes will look to make the tournament once again after failing to make it last year.
The Buckeyes hope to build off the momentum created by last season’s Big Ten tournament run, where they advanced to the semifinals before eventually losing to top-seeded Purdue.