Ohio State Buckeyes to open season unranked nationally for first time in four years
For the first time in four years, the Ohio State men’s basketball team will open the season as an unranked team.
After going 20-12 overall and reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the Buckeyes return only two players who played in more than two games a season ago. A five-man freshman class, combined with three transfers, will give coach Chris Holtmann a rebuilt roster as he enters his sixth season with the program.
The Buckeyes received 23 points in the voting, good for No. 35 nationally.
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Only three Big Ten teams were included in the poll. Indiana is No. 13, ahead of Michigan and Illinois at Nos. 22 and 23, respectively.
In the preseason media poll conducted jointly by The Dispatch and The Athletic, Ohio State was picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten. That lines up with the AP poll, which also has Purdue (56 points) and Michigan State (35) receiving votes ahead of the Buckeyes. Iowa (13) and Rutgers (4) also received some votes.
Ohio State opened the 2021-22 season at No. 17 in the poll, marking the third straight year they were ranked to start the season. It was a modest increase on the prior two seasons: the Buckeyes were No. 21 in the first 2020-21 poll and No. 18 the year prior.
Ohio State will face Wake Forest this Saturday in a closed-door scrimmage at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia. The Buckeyes open the season with an exhibition against Chaminade on Nov. 1 and play their first regular-season game six days later against Robert Morris at Value City Arena.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Buckeyes unranked in first AP poll of 2022-23 season
