Big Ten Basketball: Buy or sell Michigan State, Rutgers, Ohio State and Indiana?

Ohio State Buckeyes – Making the NCAA Tournament

After going 16-19 overall and losing 13 of 14 games at one point, the belief was that Ohio State would bounce back quickly to being in the top half of Big Ten Basketball and in the postseason hunt again. They had a solid exhibition performance against Dayton, though some question marks about the perimeter defense showed.

It happened again against an Oakland squad that lost its star guard (Jalen Moore) this past offseason. Instead, it was guys like Jack Gohlke and Blake Lampman who held their own against the likes of Roddy Gayle and Bruce Thornton. It wasn’t even Rocket Watts, the former Michigan State Spartan guard, that did the damage to Ohio State.

But hey, at least they aren’t in the same position as Rutgers. And Oakland HC Greg Kampe is one of the all-time active wins leaders so it wasn’t against awful competition. But it’s clear that the collective defense hasn’t changed much between now and last season and that’s a concern. Because if Zed Key isn’t giving you 15+ points, they may not have enough points to win against the better competition in league play.

Ultimately, there’s too much talent on this roster not to succeed. There could be some more bumps in the road but assuming the sophomore guards continue to develop, they’ll be able to win enough big games to be in the NCAA Tournament again.

Buy