Ohio State basketball team’s path to NCAA Tournament is clear

The Ohio State basketball team finished the season on a four-game winning streak. It’s not something that anyone in Columbus thought could happen after what we saw midway through February. Interest in the program had waned. Attendance was rock bottom. Fans wanted Chris Holtmann fired. They got their wish and things turned around instantly.

The Buckeyes have fought their way back to just outside of the bubble. They’re not on it right now but they still have a shot to get there. Because of their winning streak, they will be the 10-seed in the Big Ten Tournament. They get to take on 7th-seeded Iowa on Thursday in their matchup on Friday. If they win that game, they will play two-seed Illinois on Friday.

Ohio State basketball team needs two wins to make March Madness

Beating Iowa and then beating Illinois should be enough to put the Buckeyes in depending on what happens with other teams on the bubble. It gets them onto the bubble at the very least. If they want to make sure there’s no doubt, they can win on Saturday and make the Big Ten Tournament finals. Doing that ensures they make the Big Dance.

Both Iowa and Illinois beat the Buckeyes earlier in the year. That was also when the Buckeyes still had Holtmann coaching the team. This is a much different team with much different energy. They are the hottest team coming into the Big Ten Tournament. In fact, Iowa is just 2-2 in their last four games heading into their matchup with the Bucks. They’re on the bubble too.

Ohio State just needs to play with the effort that they have played with over the past month. If they can do that, they have a great shot to beat Iowa and move on to take on the Illini. They just have to take it one game at a time.