Ohio State is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022, but the Buckeyes are going to have to get through arguably the toughest of the four regions in the 68-team bracket.
While the Buckeyes are a No. 8 seed in the East region and would almost certainly run into the No. 1 overall seed, Duke, with a win in their first game, there is something to say about how OSU has been playing some its best basketball as of late.
Needing a late run in the regular season, Ohio State beat eventual Big Ten tournament champion, Purdue, then routed Penn State and Indiana before topping Iowa in the third round of the conference tournament. They were knocked out of the Big Ten bracket by Michigan, but were in the game down to the final minute.
With TCU on the schedule in the first round, a No. 9 seed, head coach Jake Diebler believes the momentum the Buckeyes are bringing into the bracket is going to help them.
“Momentum matters,” Diebler said immediately after seeing where his team was placed in the tournament. “Some teams are trying to reset. For us, we’re trying to keep going. We don’t need a reset right now. We need to keep pressing.”
That doesn’t mean the head coach is taking the opportunity to try to make a run for granted. He’s making sure his team is as prepared for the Horned Frogs as they can be when the two teams tip off at 12:15 p.m. for the first game of the first round.
“They’re a really good team,” Diebler said of TCU. “I think we’re a really good team. If you look at the way these two teams have played recently, I think it’s exciting. We’re anticipating an absolute big-time, big-time game.”
TCU received a bye out of the first round of the Big 12 tournament, and used that rest to take down Oklahoma State in that game. The Horned Frogs would be taken down by Kansas — which is the No. 4 seed in the East region — in the quarterfinal of their conference tournament, 78-73.
But TCU has beaten some very good teams this season. It finished the regular season with an eight-point victory over a ranked Texas Tech team, beat No. 6 Iowa State on Feb. 10, Wisconsin on Nov. 28, No. 4 Florida on Nov. 27 and only lost by four points to Michigan on Nov. 14.
Both of TCU’s scoring offense and defense are just over 100th in the country, but per KenPom, the Horned Frogs defensive efficiency is 22nd in the country, and Diebler is well aware of the challenges the Buckeyes will face on that side of the ball.
“Those guys play bigger. They’ve got good length and athleticism, (more) than some of the guys we’re used to seeing in the Big Ten. Their size is impactful, it’s just different than what we see sometimes.”
But Diebler also believes that some of what the Horned Frogs do defensively are things OSU has seen before.
“We’ve seen some of their defensive schemes. What they’re trying to do, we’ve seen it this year at times, so we have some stuff to reference, which is valuable.”
