With the mourning over the loss of the 2020 NCAA men’s basketball tournament ongoing, many are releasing the initial look at next year’s polls in order to fill the spirit of those upset about the void of March Madness.
USA Today was one of the sites to recently publish a way-too-early top-25 for the 2020-2021 season, and sadly, they left the Ohio State Buckeyes off the list. Columnist Scott Gleeson included Iowa and Wisconsin in the top ten though.
The top five include Kansas, Baylor, Virginia, Kentucky, and Gonzaga.
Michigan and Michigan State also cracked the top 25, but the Big Ten, who may have easily had the most teams in the tournament this year, had just four teams represented. Ohio State was unranked, and that’s ok.
Until rattling off nine straight victories and defeating two top-ten teams handily, the team this season was receiving little love as well. They were a resilient group and was that was destined for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
However, skeptics may be right to worry. Kaleb Wesson may have played his last game as a Buckeye and DJ Carton is entering the transfer portal. That will leave a good bit of uncertainty surrounding this Buckeyes roster. Though USA TODAY’s piece was written before the Carton news hit today.
Ohio State has the 56th-best 2020 recruiting class according to 247Sports. The potential loss of their star big man and then the lack of incoming talent gives columnists the right to doubt the Buckeyes. Then again, guys like E.J. Liddell and Alonzo Gaffney should develop and there’s still a lot coming back.
No matter. Just like this past season, Chris Holtmann’s team will find a way to win games. You can bank on that.
