It has been a roller-coaster season for the Ohio State basketball team so far. They have wins over both Texas and Kentucky, and they blew out the Wildcats. Those have been the high points of the season so far for the Buckeyes. There have been plenty of low points, too.
The Buckeyes have blowout losses to Auburn and Maryland. They also blew a game against Oregon last week they should have won. They were trying to right the ship off that loss by beating Wisconsin in Madison, a tall order for any team to tackle.
After the Ohio State Buckeyes were down 17 points at halftime, they made a big run to cut it to one point in the second half. Unfortunately, that was as close as they got, as they weren't able to finish the comeback. They fell to the Badgers 70-68 and have now lost three of their last four games.
The Ohio State basketball team's comeback effort falls short against Wisconsin
The Buckeyes played with a lot of heart and hustle in this game, but they weren't able to make up the deficit. Bruce Thornton really stepped it up in the second half. He finished the game with a team-high 21 points on 7-13 shooting. This team continues to go as he goes.
Jake Diebler has had a lot of learning opportunities in his first full year. As this season has gone along, it's clear that this team once again won't be participating in the NCAA Tournament. That's not entirely unexpected, with it being Diebler's first full season.
We've seen some good things, and we've seen some bad things from this team so far. Ohio State has to be careful they don't fall below 14th in the Big Ten standings. If that happens, they won't be participating in the Big Ten Tournament. That should be their goal moving forward.