Ohio State on the March Madness bubble with work to do against Illinois
MINNEAPOLIS – Ohio State has officially put itself on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Now it needs at least one more win to stay there. With a 20-12 overall record and on the heels of Thursday’s 90-78 win against No. 7 seed Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament, the Buckeyes are one of 23 teams competing for 15 spots on the bubble for March Madness according to ESPN. In an update published Friday morning, Ohio State is listed as a team with “work to do” but one that’s now under consideration for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
“Bubble Watch has had an eye on the Buckeyes for some time now as they've moved up our Team Sheet Top 100 rankings,” ESPN’s John Gasaway wrote. “Now the Buckeyes have broken through to ‘work to do,’ and not a moment too soon.”
ESPN notes that the Buckeyes still have “a good deal of ground to cover” in order to finish on the right side of the bubble, even after the win against Iowa they approached with urgency and not pressure, and a win against No. 2 seed Illinois on Friday night would go a long way toward accomplishing those goals.
Even without a win against the Fighting Illini, interim coach Jake Diebler said Thursday night that he feels the Buckeyes have a shot at being picked for the NCAA Tournament.
“I still think we’ve got a great resume ourselves,” he said. “I’m not an expert on all these metrics and analytics and things, but I know there’s not a team more connected and having more momentum right now than what we have. I think our body of work is good and we’ve got an opportunity tomorrow to take it up to another level.”
Where is Ohio State in the NET rankings?
The win against Iowa moved Ohio State up two spots to No. 53 in the NCAA’s NET rankings that are used to help the selection committee sort through resumes. It gave the Buckeyes a Quadrant 2 win on the same date that they had a win previously classified as such drop to Quadrant 3. Ohio State’s home win against Maryland is now a Quad 3 game after the Terrapins were blown out by Wisconsin on Thursday, dropping them from No. 72 to No. 81.
The cutoff for a home win to be a Quad 2 game is a No. 75 NET ranking. Ohio State is now 3-6 in Quad 1 and 3-5 in Quad 2, making the Buckeyes 6-11 in the first two Quadrants. No power conference team ahead of Ohio State in the NET rankings has as few as six wins in the first two Quadrants.
Illinois, at No. 16, will be a Quad 1 opportunity.
“This is what we all signed up for, to be able to play important games in March,” sophomore guard Roddy Gayle Jr. said. “It’s a dream come true to be able to play against a team of that caliber in March. Just trying to show the world what we’re capable of.”
Ohio State has now won six of its last seven games since Diebler was promoted to replace Chris Holtmann, who was fired on Valentine's Day amid his seventh year with the program.
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ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Ohio State listed third among the group of “next four out” teams. Seton Hall, Colorado, Virginia and Texas A&M are his final four teams projected to make the bracket. CBS Sports listed the Buckeyes as one of Thursday’s winners in its bracketology update, saying, ‘The Buckeyes have played their way onto the NCAA Tournament bubble and will have the chance to make a serious statement to the selection committee in a quarterfinal game against Illinois on Friday.’ ”
Now the Buckeyes have an opportunity to make that statement. Illinois won the first meeting between the teams 87-75 in Value City Arena on Jan. 30.
“If we play hard and do what we do, we can beat any team,” freshman forward Devin Royal said. “I feel like that. I feel like if we’re 100% that day and we play connected and we do the little things we need to do, I feel like we’re not going to be worried. We’re going to play our hardest.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State is on the March Madness bubble, but with work still to do
