Ohio State basketball team ranked in top 15 in early CBB poll

The Ohio State basketball team has completely overhauled their roster. They have a lot of new players and have completely changed their coaching staff now that Jake Diebler is running the show. The Buckeyes are hoping all of those changes will help them be a lot better this season and make an NCAA Tournament run.

Ohio State fell just short of making the NCAA Tournament last season after a big run at the end of the season. They are hoping that they won’t need a magical run at the end of the season to just get in. Diebler knows that the expectation for the Buckeyes is to make the Tournament every single year.

Early college basketball poll has the Ohio State basketball program in the top 15

A very early college basketball poll seems to like the changes that the Buckeyes have made so far. CBS Sports has Ohio State in the top 15. In fact, they are ranked 14th right now. The Bucks were hardly in contention at any point for a top-25 ranking last season. CBS seems to think that the changes they have made make them more formidable.

Diebler has had about as good of a season as a first-time head coach can have. He’s gone after players to fix roster deficiencies and has surrounded himself with coaches who have a vast amount of experience. The Buckeyes have two good scorers in the backcourt with Bruce Thornton and Meechie Johnson as the starters.

In this early poll, the Buckeyes are one of five Big Ten teams who are in the top 25. Purdue is the highest-ranked of them, sitting at 12. That makes sense considering they just played for a national championship, even if they do lose Zach Edey. Quite frankly, I’m surprised the Buckeyes are this high up in these early rankings.

Ohio State should be significantly better next year under Diebler. It’s going to be fun to watch them.