The Buckeyes have fallen back to Earth.
After a tough loss on the road in College Station Friday night, Ohio State completely dropped out of the Week 3 Associated Press men’s basketball rankings Monday. The Buckeyes received the 35th-most votes.
Jake Diebler’s squad was No. 21 before losing by 14 points to No. 23 Texas A&M due to a poor shooting night and the inability to remain disciplined on the defensive end. Ohio State shot just 34 percent from the field and 27 percent from downtown; this came after back-to-back games shooting over 45 percent from deep.
On top of that, Ohio State picked up 12 fouls in each half, including putting the Aggies in the bonus with over seven minutes remaining in the first.
However, the Buckeyes seemed to have addressed a couple areas, even in their loss. One is that they can compete on the glass with one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country — in fact, Ohio State had more offensive boards than the reigning No. 1 team in that category.
In addition, and perhaps its still early, but Ohio State saw that it likely could not live and die by the 3-pointer; even John Mobley Jr., who started the season 7-for-8 from downtown, shot 3-for-7 from deep Friday.
Big Ten teams featured in this edition of the top 25 included No. 6 Purdue — who rose seven spots after a top-10 win over Alabama — No. 16 Indiana, new No. 19 Wisconsin, No. 24 Rutgers and No. 25 Illinois.
Ohio State can look to bounce back Tuesday in Columbus as it takes on Evansville at 7 p.m. The contest will stream live on Big Ten Plus.
