Ohio State basketball ranked 23rd in preseason polls
By Ryan Stano
The Ohio State basketball team was ranked in the top 25 of the preseason polls, landing at 23rd. Does that spot seem too low for this team?
People forget that Ohio State basketball was rolling last year before the pandemic hit. Despite losing D.J. Carton to mental health issues, Musa Jallow missing the season with an ankle injury, and Kyle Young dealing with injuries and getting his appendix removed, they were a great team.
Chris Holtmann’s squad was playing perhaps as good as any team in the country. They were ranked 19th in the final polls last season after winning five of their last six games. Now the Buckeyes are ranked 23rd in the preseason polls for this season.
Ohio State’s roster will be quite different from a year ago. They lose their best player in Kaleb Wesson, their best defender in Andre Wesson, and add a lot of new faces. Justice Sueing, Seth Towns, and Jimmy Sotos are all transfers that will be new faces on the court.
The Buckeyes also got some interesting news yesterday. Meechie Johnson, a combo guard from Garfield Heights who was originally a recruit for the 2021 class, is now reclassifying to the 2020 class. He will enroll at Ohio State for the winter semester and play this season.
Johnson gives the Buckeyes some desperately needed help at point guard. Even though he has more combo skills, he is someone who can handle the ball and initiate the offense. Right now Ohio State only has C.J. Walker as a primary ballhandler.
How well the faces mesh this season will be the key to how well this team performs. E.J. Liddel is poised to have a breakout year in his sophomore season and should be the main source of scoring for the Buckeyes. If everyone can fit together and play off of each other, this could be a really good team.
Next. Observations from Ohio State's win over Rutgers. dark
We won’t know how good this team truly can be until about mid-January. That is when everyone will be healthy and available. Until then, we get to see if the Buckeyes can improve their rankings in the polls. The Big Ten is going to be tough this year as they have 7 teams ranked in the preseason poll.