A couple weeks ago I wrote an article saying how we need to talk about Ohio State basketball more. Am I saying I was wrong? no, I’m never wrong, but I may have overstated it. Everything I said was right. Ohio State is playing very well and they’re far outperforming expectations. They even have a legit shot at the Big Ten regular season crown. They are however, very overrated, and they need to improve significantly before the tournament.

I am admittedly a huge Ohio State fan, so it actually pains me to write this. Ohio State should not be ranked as high as they are. Are they a bad team? no, that’s not what I’m saying. I just think they should be closer to 25. In the non-conference slate, they beat the bad opponents who they were supposed to beat, but when they played actual competition they lost. In all 4 non-conference losses, except Butler, they were beaten handily, and even against Butler they gave up a 15 point 2nd half lead.

They’ve been nearly running the table in the Big Ten, even beating Michigan State. They have the probable Big Ten player of the year in Keita Bates-Diop and an outstanding freshman in Kaleb Wesson, but let’s be honest, the Big Ten is terrible. Outside of Purdue, Michigan State and Ohio State the entire conference is abysmal (and yes Michigan is terrible and I won’t hear differently). Ohio State beating teams like Rutgers, Illinois and Iowa is no big accomplishment. That’s why I’m so confused about Jay Bilas’ article today about college basketball’s “best 68 teams.”

In his article, Bilas had Ohio State at 14. Some things that stood out to me were that Ohio State was ranked above UNC, Gonzaga, Clemson, Butler, and Penn State, all of whom beat Ohio State this year. I admit teams can improve over the course of the year, and Ohio State has. Also, head-to-head is not as important in basketball as in football, but you cannot completely disregard it, Jay. All those team (besides Penn State) have similar records to Ohio State, and Ohio State certainly has not had a better schedule to make up for the loss. Jay needs to fix this right away because he is blatantly wrong.

Ohio State has a huge game tonight against Purdue, at Purdue. The winner will most likely be Big Ten regular season champs. My opinion is that Ohio State will get absolutely smoked. Purdue is very, very good, with few weak spots, if any. As an Ohio State fan I hope I’m wrong and they dominate Purdue and make a deep run in the tourney, but I just don’t see it happening with the team that they have right now. Maybe in a couple years they can make a run with how good of a coach Chris Holtmann is. Time will tell, until then, Go Bucks.