Buckeyes fall again in latest AP Poll after week of split results
COLUMBUS — Ohio State is still working to become a complete product.
After a second-straight week with a 1-1 record and inconsistent play, the Buckeyes have yet to find a solid performance on both sides of the court at the same time since coming back from their three-week pause.
Voters want to see it from the Buckeyes, as well, dropping Ohio State to No. 19 in the latest AP Poll. The Buckeyes moved down three spots in the rankings due to their road loss to Wisconsin before the grind-it-out win over Penn State.
Gonzaga jumped into the top spot after previously unbeaten Baylor lost back-to-back games last week. Auburn, Arizona, Purdue and Baylor rounded out the top five. Five Big Ten teams are currently ranked as league play is in full swing for one of the top conferences in all of college basketball.
In that win over Penn State on Sunday, Ohio State finally put together a good showing on defense. But it was the offense that struggled, allowing the Nittany Lions to make it a closer game than it could have been.
Even with the offensive performance, Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann didn’t seem concerned.
“Our offense will be fine,” Holtmann said. “That’s the least of my concerns. Our guys have to keep taking good shots, and the ball has to move a little bit more than what it did [against Penn State].”
The Buckeyes will get two chances to put together complete games this week, when they welcome hapless IUPUI to the Schottenstein Center on Tuesday and Nebraska in on Saturday.
The full AP Poll can be found below.
AP Top 25 (Jan. 17)
- Gonzaga (25 first-place votes)
- Auburn (36 first-place votes)
- Arizona
- Purdue
- Baylor
- Duke
- Kansas
- Wisconsin
- UCLA
- Houston
- Villanova
- Kentucky
- LSU
- Michigan State
- Iowa State
- USC
- Illinois
- Texas Tech
- Ohio State
- Xavier
- Providence
- Loyola-Chicago
- Texas
- Tennessee
- UConn
