Shut the door on the Ohio State basketball team's NCAA Tournament hopes

The minimum expectation for the Ohio State basketball program should be to get to the NCAA Tournament every year. They have enough resources and some of the best athletic facilities in the country for their players to be the best that they can be. There's really no excuse to make the Big Dance every year.

That expectation was not met last season when the Buckeyes missed it. It wasn't just the fact that the Buckeyes missed the Tournament, it was how they missed it. They finished 5-15 in Big Ten play and never came close to being selected. They finished under .500 overall for the first time in 25 years.

This year has felt like more of the same for the Ohio State basketball program. After a 15th-straight road loss on Friday night to a bad Iowa team, the Buckeyes are just 3-7 in Big Ten play. They are now 13-9 overall and their opportunity to make the NCAA Tournament is officially closed.

The only possible way for them to be an at-large selection at this point is if they run the table the rest of the way. I can tell you right now that isn't going to happen. They still have a road game at Wisconsin and they have to play Purdue, and that happens in consecutive games.

While the rest of their schedule isn't that daunting, we've seen nothing over the past two months that makes me think they can win a road game. If you can't win a single game on the road, you won't be going to the NCAA Tournament. That's just a fact.

If Gene Smith doesn't decide to fire Chris Holtmann and give Ross Bjork a clean slate with this basketball program, it's a disaster. This program needs a complete reset. I hope the athletic department does the right thing.