Ohio State basketball exceeded expectations last season. How will Chris Holtmann’s team perform this year and can they shock many again?
One of the most pleasant surprises of last season, Ohio State basketball vastly exceeded expectations in Year 1 under head coach Chris Holtmann. Despite being picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big Ten, the Buckeyes rolled through competition throughout last season en route to a second-place finish in the conference and a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
And even though the team failed to reach the second weekend of the Big Dance, the season was clearly a successful one for the program. Yet, as we look ahead to this coming season, media members are still not giving Ohio State basketball the respect that it deserves. Sure, the Buckeyes suffered some key losses this offseason, including B1G Player of the Year Keita Bates-Diop, but they still return a fair amount of talent and one of the best coaches in the nation.
There are plenty of question marks facing the team heading into this new campaign but it is also reasonable to project that Coach Holtmann will help the team exceed expectations once again. Ohio State was picked to finish eighth by the unofficial official media vote and it would not be a surprise if the team managed to perform much better than that.
So, with this being said, let’s launch into previewing the upcoming campaign for the Buckeyes.