If the Ohio State basketball team isn’t the most pleasant surprise of the 2019-2020 season so far, I don’t know what program is. The Buckeyes have already put together a very impressive resume that includes wins over four of the last eight national champions — including Villanova, North Carolina, and Kentucky.
In fact, you literally can’t find a better body of work anywhere in the country, and when it comes time to select teams to be a high seed in the NCAA Tournament in March, these wins will likely hold up against anyone’s even throughout the rest of the season.
March Madness’ and the Big Ten Network’s Andy Katz has taken notice as have other analysts across the country. He has moved Ohio State up to No. 2 in his latest Power 36 college basketball rankings behind only Gonzaga.
Auburn, Oregon and Duke round out the top five, with the rest below.
There's a new team on top of @TheAndyKatz's Power 36! đź‘€
1. Gonzaga
2. Ohio State
3. Auburn
4. Oregon
5. Duke
6. Baylor
7. Memphis
8. Louisville
9. San Diego State
10. Butler
11-36. 👉https://t.co/60luNKVxdW pic.twitter.com/ynAv2K8vvE— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) December 23, 2019
As good as Ohio State has been, we must all remember that there’s still a long way to go in the season, and the Big Ten is a deep, tough, and a hard conference to navigate. There will be other losses on the schedule, but right now OSU has sent a message to the entire college basketball universe that it’s a team to reckon with this year.