After Maui trip, Ohio State basketball enters the Associated Press top 25
Adam JardyAfter a fifth-place finish in the 2022 Maui Invitational, the Ohio State men’s basketball team has climbed into this week’s Associated Press top 25 poll.
The Buckeyes, who will play at No. 17 Duke on Wednesday, are No. 25
Unranked to open the season and picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten in a media poll conducted jointly by The Dispatch and The Athletic, Ohio State received 23 points in the preseason AP poll, equivalent to a No. 35 ranking. The Buckeyes earned 36 points in the next poll, tying them with Iowa at No. 33, and left for Maui with a 3-0 record against low-major competition and 56 points in the poll, putting them at No. 28.
Ohio State played 25 of its 32 games as a ranked team last season and got as high as No. 13 in the AP poll. Since Chris Holtmann was hired for the 2017-18 season, the Buckeyes have been ranked in 104 of their 169 games and been ranked as high as No. 2.
The Buckeyes are ranked No. 19 at KenPom.com, No. 27 at EvanMiya.com and No. 29 at BartTorvik.com. While in Maui, they lost to San Diego State, beat Cincinnati and finished with a win against Texas Tech. The Aztecs are now ranked No. 24 while Texas Tech, ranked No. 21 at the time of the game, is now unranked.
The Big Ten has two top-10 teams in Purdue (No. 5) and Indiana (No. 10). Illinois (No. 16), Michigan State (20) and Maryland (22) are also ranked.