The Ohio State Buckeyes had a horrific January, but they could bounce back into the AP Poll’s top 15 with a perfect week.
Thankfully, the Buckeyes were able to reclaim their spot in the top 25 after being a top-ten team earlier on this season. That’s what a bad stretch of games can do to a team.
The Buckeyes are 17-8.
They’d be 16-2 without that January stretch of games in which they lost six of seven. Since then, they’ve won five of their last six, helping improve put their conference record to 7-7.
The Buckeyes have two huge performances this week.
They’ll be taking on the No. 20 Iowa Hawkeyes and the No. 7 Maryland Terrapins. The second of the two is at home which is at least partially relieving for fans.
Those two are the only games this week. If they can dominate these two conference opponents, there’s no doubt that the Buckeyes will jump into college basketball’s top-20 teams. Of course that’s easier said than done.
On a more grateful note, the Buckeyes’ recent stretch has almost solidified a spot in the NCAA tournament after being widely considered a fringe March Madness team after that poor stretch of play. At least barring a complete meltdown to end the season.
That said, the Buckeyes have the games to display their improvement, but they’ll have to come out and play in two of their more important performances of the season.
