Buckeyes inch ahead in latest AP Poll
COLUMBUS — Ohio State moved up two spots to No. 23 in Monday’s AP Top 25.
The Buckeyes (7-2, 1-0 Big Ten) are one of six Big Ten teams in the AP Top 25. The others are No. 1 Purdue, No. 14 Indiana, No. 18 Illinois, No. 20 Maryland and No. 22 Wisconsin.
Purdue climbed to No. 1, leapfrogging now-No. 2 Virginia. UConn rose to No. 3, and Alabama cracked the top five at No. 4. Houston dropped from the top spot to No. 5 after its loss to the Crimson Tide.
Ohio State has a nine-day pause between its buzzer-beating win over Rutgers and its CBS Sports Classic showdown with North Carolina in Madison Square Garden.
UNC began the year as the No. 1 team in the country and remained in that spot the first two weeks of the season, thanks to an undefeated start. But, since kicking off the year 5-0, the Tar Heels have fallen off. Head coach Hubert Davis’ team — which returned 68.5% of the minutes from UNC’s national runner-up team in 2021-22, the 16th-highest continuity percentage in the country — has dropped four of its last five games, including a quadruple-overtime game to Alabama in Portland, Oregon, for the Phil Knight Invitational.
The Tar Heels’ backcourt duo of Caleb Love and R.J. Davis is struggling from beyond the arc. In fact, both guards are shooting below 30% from outside. Center Armando Bacot’s scoring and rebounding numbers are as expected, as evidenced by five double-doubles so far, but he’s been in foul trouble more times than not. Bacot’s racked up four personals on six separate occasions. Even so, he’s actually averaging more minutes per game (33.8) than he did last year (31.6).
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- 4Hot
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- 5
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Ohio State and UNC will face off Saturday at 3 p.m. The Buckeyes don’t resume Big Ten play until New Year’s Day at Northwestern.
Lettermen Row has the entire Week 6 AP Top 25 Poll (Dec. 12) below:
- Purdue
- Virginia
- UConn
- Alabama
- Houston
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Kansas
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Baylor
- Duke
- Kentucky
- Indiana
- Gonzaga
- UCLA
- Mississippi State
- Illinois
- Auburn
- Maryland
- TCU
- Wisconsin
- Ohio State
- Virginia Tech
- Miami
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