Ohio State basketball: Chances in Big Ten Tournament

Coming off a loss, the Ohio State basketball team needs to rally. They still have three games left on their schedule, but they are all at home. They have only lost one home game all year. That should help them get some confidence as the regular season winds down.

Barring some wort of complete collapse down the stretch, the Buckeyes will at least have a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament. So how well could they possibly do in that tournament? Truth be told, it all depends on the matchup for this team.

One thing we’ve learned is that they seem to play to the level of their competition. So they’ll get up for the Purdue’s and Wisconsin’s and Illinois’ of the conference. That also means they’ll play down to the Maryland’s and Indiana’s and Nebraska’s. They’re truly confounding.

This team could go all the way to the final game, or get bounced in the first round. Personally, I’ll be surprised if they are still standing on that Saturday in the semi-finals. I just don’t believe in this team anymore. I had deluded myself into thinking something had changed, but it hasn’t.

This team still can’t shoot or rebound. They can’t mentally lock-in when they play worse opponents than them. A team like that typically doesn’t succeed in a conference tournament. If they do end up getting to Saturday, that would mean this team would be about a 5 or 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Having this Ohio State basketball team on the 5/12 matchup line scares the hell out of me because they would be an easy target for an upset. The problem is that I don’t see them making a run to the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game like they did a year ago.

We still have a couple of weeks before the Big Ten Tourney starts. Hopefully, the Buckeyes don’t drop any more games until then.