Ohio State Basketball Falls to No. 23 in Latest AP Poll

Chris Holtmann's Ohio State Buckeyes dropped three spots this week after losing to Purdue and beating UCLA.

Ohio State dropped three spots to No. 23 in the latest AP College Basketball Poll, released on Monday morning.

The Buckeyes (6-1) are coming off a 1-1 week that included a frustrating setback in the Big Ten opener at Purdue (without their best player E.J. Liddell) and perhaps their most complete win of the season over UCLA on Saturday.

The Purdue game had some good moments, including the first taste of the physicality that often defines Big Ten basketball for freshman forward Zed Key. Key had to defend one of the conference's best players, Purdue forward Trevion Williams, who had a great game against Ohio State. Without E.J. Liddell or Ibrahima Diallo, it was difficult for the Buckeyes to match up in the post with Williams and 7-foot-4 freshman center Zach Edey. Combine that with another tough outside shooting performance and it added up to an Ohio State 67-60 loss. Justice Sueing led the Bucks with 14 points, but he shot only 5-of-11 from the floor and turned the ball over five times.

WATCH: Chris Holtmann's Postgame Press Conference Highlights After Buckeyes Beat UCLA

But the Buckeyes deserve a lot of credit for the way they responded on Saturday against the UCLA Bruins on a neutral floor in Cleveland. After learning just a couple days beforehand that they would play UCLA instead of North Carolina, the Buckeyes had limited time to prep for a very good team out of the Pac-12. Duane Washington hit two big 3-pointers to lead Ohio State with 14 points, but the day really belonged to freshmen Eugene Brown III and Zed Key. Key had 11 points and six boards, while Brown played the best game of his young career by burying all three of his 3-point shots in seven minutes off the bench.

The latest AP Poll is as follows, which includes Gonzaga and Baylor holding in the top two spots nationally and includes five other ranked teams in the Big Ten.

AP Top 25 (Monday, Dec. 21)

No. 1 Gonzaga (4–0)
No. 2 Baylor (5–0)
No. 3 Kansas (7–1)
No. 4 Iowa (6–1)
No. 5 Villanova (7–1)
No. 6 Houston (5–0)
No. 7 West Virginia (7–1)
No. 8 Tennessee (4–0)
No. 9 Wisconsin (6–1)
No. 10 Texas (7–1)
No. 11 Rutgers (6–0)
No. 12 Michigan State (6–1)
No. 13 Creighton (6–2)
No. 14 Missouri (5–0)
No. 15 Texas Tech (6–2)
No. 16 Virginia (3–1)
No. 17 North Carolina (5–2)
No. 18 Illinois (5–3)
No. 19 Michigan (6–0)
No. 20 Duke (3–2)
No. 21 Florida State (4–1)
No. 22 Xavier (8–0)
No. 23 Ohio State (6–1)
No. 24 Virginia Tech (6–1)
No. 25 Oregon (6–1)

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