Ohio State basketball predicted to be a middling team

The Ohio State basketball season is fast approaching us. We will be doing a full preview of the team later this week. The Big Ten media voted on how each team in the league will finish. It seems that the media does not have much faith in the Buckeyes this season.

They are predicted to finish seventh in the league, which is exactly average. There are only 14 teams in the league right now so they expect the Buckeyes to be firmly average. They were not even that good last season, finishing under .500 and finishing second-to-last in the league.

I’m surprised that the media thinks the Buckeyes will be this good this season. They lost a lot of production from last season. In fact, they only return four guys that played significant minutes for them. They do get a lot of talented young guys in the program though.

Perhaps that young talent is what the media is banking on. Devin Royal is the best player in a recruiting class that was once again a top-ten class. He is a candidate to start right away at the small forward position. It’s also good to have Zed Key back and healthy again.

Finishing seventh in the Big Ten should be good enough for an NCAA Tournament berth. This is a deep and punishing league. The Ohio State basketball team didn’t get a berth in the dance last year so that would certainly be an improvement.

Chris Holtmann needs an improvement this season. If he doesn’t have one, he’s in big trouble for his job. The AD that hired him, Gene Smith, is retiring in June. Whoever comes in next has no loyalty at all to Holtmann and could love to remove him if the Buckeyes miss the NCAA Tournament again this year.

I do think this team will be better than what they were last year. It’s hard not to be.