Bracketology 2021: Ohio State, USC, and St. John’s among big winners

Ohio State

It’s been 21 years since a Big Ten team won the national championship, but that’s not to say that a few teams haven’t been close. Throughout these last few decades, the Big Ten has produced some fantastic teams and the programs in this conference have built themselves up well for the future. These past few seasons, it’s fair to say that the Big Ten is one of if not the best conference in college basketball.

This season, Ohio State is looking like they might be the top contender from the conference. The Buckeyes have been on a roll as of late, with Sunday’s win against Michigan State getting the week started well. Then, Ohio State got one of the finest wins of the season, winning a thriller at #8 Iowa, getting 16 point efforts from E. J. Liddell, Kyle Young, and Duane Washington Jr.

Ohio State is now 15-4, with their 9-4 conference mark good enough to put them 3rd in the Big Ten. They already own great road wins at Wisconsin and Illinois, one of the two teams above them in the standings. The Buckeyes are 7-1 since New Year’s and are really playing their best ball in recent weeks.

The remaining schedule is pretty favorable for the Buckeyes, which is saying something in a league as tightly-contested as the Big Ten. There are some tricky road games ahead (though they have won four straight road games against ranked teams), but Ohio State has put themselves in an incredible position. They may be a bit behind Michigan to win the conference, but they could very easily end up as a top 2 seed with the way they’re playing.