PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 01: Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes prepares to take the field prior to a game against the Utah Utes in the Rose Bowl Game at Rose Bowl Stadium on January 01, 2022 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
The basketball team from Ohio State won 12 of its first 14 games to open the season. They subsequently dropped nine of their subsequent eleven games. Chris Holtmann was fired as a result of such defeats.
Ohio State can do a few things to strengthen their case, even if they are currently not likely to make the 2024 NCAA Tournament. In addition to defeating Rutgers, they would need to win the Big Ten conference tournament in March. Though the RAC is one of the hardest venues to play in the nation, defeating Rutgers on the road will be difficult. Rutgers isn’t much better than Ohio State, but it will be difficult to win on the road.
They have already defeated Purdue, ranked third, and Alabama, ranked sixteenth. Right now, their chances of success are rather limited. They will need a few of the teams that are presently hovering around the bubble to collapse, notably Nebraska, Northwestern, and Minnesota, two Big Ten teams.
The Ohio State basketball team can still qualify for the NCAA Tournament if they win at least two games in the Big Ten Tournament, even if they don’t take first place. That will compel the committee to make a difficult choice and at the very least place them on the bubble.
Jake Diebler might be able to retain his full-time head coaching position next year if the team makes it to the NCAA Tournament. Ross Bjork would find it extremely difficult to urge Diebler to quit after he successfully led a club that was doomed to the postseason
