Ohio State basketball: An in-depth look at the South region

The Ohio State basketball team is the second seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament. Here is a look at that region and how the Buckeyes might stack up with the rest of the teams.

After a tough overtime loss in the Big Ten Championship, the Ohio State basketball team learned that they are the second seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament. We know that the Buckeyes are facing Oral Roberts, who is the 15 seed.

We now know what time that game will occur and where the Buckeyes will be playing. That game will be at 3 pm on Friday in Mackey Arena. So the Buckeyes will be traveling up to West Lafayette for the first weekend of the Tournament. They would be in Indy the weekend after, assuming they make it that far.

In order to make it that far, the Buckeyes would have to beat the winner of the Florida/Virginia Tech game. That is the 7/10 matchup. Taking a look at Oral Roberts, that game shouldn’t be hard to win. We’ll take a more in-depth look at them later in the week.

Florida and Virginia Tech are different animals though. Florida has been sliding recently, losing three of their last four games of the season. In fact, they only had a 14-9 record. Despite that less than stellar record, they are still the higher seeded team in that matchup.

Virginia Tech has better wins than Florida, yet they are the 10 seed. They have wins over Villanova and Virginia. Ohio State would be better served if they faced Florida instead. Even though they do have a 6’11 forward who is their second-best player, Florida is not as dangerous.

If Ohio State were able to win that game, then their third game would likely be against either Arkansas or Texas Tech, neither of which are desirable matchups. Then the finale in the region would likely be against Purdue, who the Buckeyes are deeply familiar with, or Baylor.

This Ohio State basketball team has a chance to do something truly great this year. It all starts by getting some rest this week and then taking care of Oral Roberts on Friday afternoon.