Ohio State Unranked In Preseason AP Top 25 Men's Basketball Poll

This snaps a streak of three straight seasons in which the Buckeyes were ranked to begin the year.

Author:
Andrew Lind
Oct 17, 2022 1:01 PM EDT

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The Ohio State men's basketball program will begin the 2022-23 season unranked in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, which was released on Monday afternoon.

The Buckeyes had a considerable amount of turnover this offseason, with two players heading to the NBA, two players transferring, six players exhausting their eligibility and one player stepping away from the game due to injuries.

Head coach Chris Holtmann addressed that by signing the best recruiting class of his Ohio State tenure, including four of the five freshmen among the nation's top 65 prospects, as well as bringing on three upperclassmen through the transfer portal.

Still, there are a lot of unknowns about this year's team, and the preseason rankings reflect that.

"We know there are going to be moments that are head-scratching with just the general inexperience that those (freshmen) are going to have," Holtmann said during his media availability on Sept. 26. "But we're excited about the potential of this group, for sure."

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That said, the Buckeyes face several teams ranked in the top 25 this season, and could quickly climb the rankings with a win over No. 19 San Diego State – and potential matchups against No. 9 Creighton, No. 10 Arkansas or No. 25 Texas Tech – in the Maui Invitational on Nov. 21-23.

Ohio State also faces No. 7 Duke in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 30, No. 1. North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic on Dec. 17, No. 23 Illinois on Jan. 24 and Feb. 26, No. 13 Indiana on Jan. 28 and No. 22 Michigan on Feb. 5.

The Buckeyes had been ranked in three straight preseason polls but received just 23 votes this year. They open the season on Nov. 7 against Robert Morris, with tipoff set for 7 p.m. on BTN+.

That said, the full preseason AP Top 25 can be found below, with first-place votes in parenthesis:

1. North Carolina (47)
2. Gonzaga (12)
3. Houston (1)
4. Kentucky (2)
T5. Baylor
T5. Kansas
7. Duke
8. UCLA
9. Creighton
10. Arkansas
11. Tennessee
12. Texas
13. Indiana
14. TCU
15. Auburn
16. Villanova
17. Arizona
18. Virginia
19. San Diego State
20. Alabama
21. Oregon
22. Michigan
23. Illinois
24. Dayton
25. Texas Tech