Ohio State Buckeyes Left Out of Latest ESPN Bracketology

The Ohio State Buckeyes are on an obvious downward trend.

It was a long month of January for Chris Holtmann’s Buckeyes.

Ohio State (13-8, 3-7) was left out of the latest released ESPN Men's Bracketology Tuesday after a cold start to the calendar year.

After a fairly good start to the season, going 11-2 in November and December 2023, the Buckeyes seem to be at a similar point as last season. Ohio State also started 9-3 last season before hitting conference play and going 1-8 in January.

Last February wasn’t much better either — the Buckeyes lost seven in a row before finally winning their last matchup against Illinois. But by then, it was too late.

At this point, Ohio State is still sitting at No. 12 in the Big Ten, a spot higher than they finished last season. However, they haven't hit February yet and are seemingly on an upward trend after hitting rock bottom.

On their current three-game losing streak, the Buckeyes’ first two losses came by 14 to Nebraska and 25 to Northwestern — Ohio State’s largest loss since losing to No. 3 Purdue on Feb. 19. 

But their last game against Illinois — a 12-point loss that appeared much closer than the score looked — showed how good and efficient the team can be when they get stops and score on the other end. 

Holtmann left some uncertainty postgame against Illinois Tuesday about whether last season’s struggles are creeping back into the minds of the returners.

“Could some of what happened last year be impacting [our mentality]? Maybe, I don’t know,” Holtmann said.

Sophomore guard Roddy Gayle Jr. said Tuesday he doesn’t want to “feel the same pain I did last year” and knows the Buckeyes can make a push to finish the season out strong.

“We’ve seen an improvement in our practices,” Gayle said. “We just had a high level of urgency going into the game, but I feel like there’s another level where we’ve got to be to achieve our goals. I think we still have a great opportunity to make a really good push for the rest of the season.”

Gayle also struggled himself this month, shooting 30.7 percent from the field in a six-game stretch from Jan. 6 to Jan. 23. He has picked it back up in the last couple of games but now it seems sophomore backcourt partner Bruce Thornton has been in a funk, especially from beyond the arc.

Thornton shot 22.7 percent from downtown in January, resulting in a lot of wasted possessions. While not necessarily known for being a 3-point shooter, the young guard has tried to add it to his package of paint attacking and midrange pullups.

Currently, ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi projects six Big Ten teams making the tournament: No. 1 Purdue, No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 14 Illinois, Michigan State, Northwestern and Nebraska.

Fortunately for Ohio State, they have Rutgers and Michigan at home to end conference play. But before that, they have to play Purdue, Nebraska, Indiana, and at Wisconsin.

Also, the Buckeyes can remain hopeful: They turned things almost completely around in the Big Ten Tournament a year ago, winning three games before losing to Purdue in the semifinals.

Perhaps Holtmann’s squad can turn things around before then as they get into the meat of conference play and keep that glimmer of an NCAA Tournament berth alive.