Prove it Week

The Buckeye Basketball team has a big week ahead, and it’s time to see what they’re really made of

Adam Bloom | January 26th, 2022

Picture this: It is 8 days in the future, February 3rd, 2022. The Buckeye Men’s Basketball team has jumped into the top ten in the AP Poll, is in the top 3 in the Big Ten rankings, and just polished off a 3-0 week against Minnesota and #6 Purdue on the road, as well as Iowa at home. The Buckeyes have proven that they are a legit threat in the big ten. Life is good.

We’d all love to see ourselves feeling overjoyed about this team come the end of the Iowa game in just over a week, but it isn’t hard to see how easily things could not fall in Ohio State’s favor. Now imagine that it’s the same date, but the Buckeyes dropped 2 of those 3 games. They’ve slipped out of the top twenty in the AP poll, and are stuck in the middle of the Big Ten rankings with only 9 games to go. These two alternate futures are both totally possible. These next 8 days are massive for this Buckeye team. It’s time to see who this team really is. This is the Buckeyes ‘prove it’ moment.

There’s absolutely no denying that this team is fun to watch. The overtimes, last second game winners (and losers), and the apparent inability of this team to win without causing my heart to nearly explode has made for an undeniably exciting season so far. The Buckeyes are sitting just outside the top 15 and are one game behind first in the Big Ten despite the hyperventilating that we have all been doing during the last two minutes of basically every game. It’s been a wild ride, but the Buckeyes are going to need to prove that they can put teams not named Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis away earlier than the last second. I’m 25 and relatively healthy, but I’m pretty sure I might need to start seeing a cardiologist if things don’t change from the way they have been. (I can only imagine how Coach Holtmann is feeling).

We are going to learn a lot about Ohio State’s basketball team in the next week. Minnesota isn’t the scariest team, but they’re 11-5 and Big Ten road games are never a given. Purdue is one of the hottest teams in the country, ranked in the top 6, and going on the road to West Lafayette is no laughing matter. Iowa is 14-5, and will come into Ohio State with the Buckeyes tired from two games on the road. This team will need multiple players beyond EJ Liddell to step up and provide consistent scoring if they are going to win these games. They will also need to limit turnovers and play smart basketball down the stretch of games with raucous opposing fans chanting down at them. Is it possible that the Buckeyes will continue to bring every single opponent with them to the last shot and still contend in the Big Ten and March Madness? Sure, of course it is, but it is going to be a lot easier for this team to be elite, and for me to avoid collapsing like Dabo Swinney’s football team without a generational QB, if they can put teams away earlier in games. This is going to be one of the toughest weeks this team will face, and it will likely be one of the most important as well. With the postseason starting to approach, the time is now for the Buckeyes to show their true colors.

Go Bucks, Beat TTUN

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