No. 7 Ohio State Debuts in AP Poll Top 10
Ohio State is one of the hottest teams in college basketball and it's getting some appropriate recognition for an impressive January resume.
With Monday's release of the AP Poll, Ohio State finds itself with a season-best No. 7 national ranking.
The Buckeyes, despite playing four games in January without starting point guard C.J. Walker and the last six games without back up point guard Jimmy Sotos, won six of their eight games in the first calendar month of 2021 and have skyrocketed up the national AP Poll. After losing on Jan. 3 to Minnesota in truly the only bad game the Buckeyes have played to date, Ohio State's only blemish the last seven games is a last second 3-pointer from Jaden Ivey and Purdue as the Boilermakers nipped Ohio State at home.
Key Takeaways from Ohio State's Win Over Michigan State
Considering that the Buckeyes fell out of the top-25 all together for one week after losing to Minnesota, this has been a fantastic stretch of basketball over the past month.
This past week, the Scarlet and Gray beat Penn State on short notice, in a game that was rescheduled after an earlier postponement because of CoVID running through the Penn State locker room. The Nittany Lions played them tough, but the Buckeyes prevailed 83-79.
Ohio State followed it up by walloping Michigan State on Sunday, 79-62.
This is the first time since December 2019 that the Buckeyes have cracked the national top-10.
WATCH: Chris Holtmann Reacts to Beating Michigan State
It also sets up a marquee matchup on Thursday in Iowa City, Iowa against the Hawkeyes, who fell one spot this week to No. 8. Iowa has lost back-to-back games after it started 12-2 this season.
The Iowa game is Ohio State's only scheduled game this week. They don't play this weekend, but rather the following Monday at Maryland before returning home on Feb. 13 to host Indiana.
The Big Ten continues to be well-represented in the AP Poll. Michigan is the only team ranked ahead of Ohio State. Despite being on-pause right now because of CoVID, the Wolverines are ranked No. 4. Aside from Ohio State and Iowa, No. 12 Illinois, No. 19 Wisconsin and No. 24 Purdue all found themselves in this week's poll too.
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