Buckeyes will get shot against nation’s top-ranked team
Ohio State will host the nation's topranked team when Duke comes to town Tuesday night as part of the ACC-BIG Ten Challenge.
In the new Associated Press weekly poll, the Blue Devils climbed to No. 1 after an 84-81 win against Gonzaga, the prior No. 1 team, on Friday night in Las
Vegas.
Ohio State is 9-11 all-time when playing the No. 1 team in the nation.
Ohio State has played 16 games against top-10 teams during Chris Holtmann's first four seasons with the program and has compiled an 8-8 record. The first was an 86-72 loss to No. 5 North Carolina on Dec. 23, 2017. The Buckeyes were unranked in that game, one of only four times during those 16 games they weren't a top-25 team. As an unranked team against a top-10 team, Ohio State is 1-3 under Holtmann.
The one win came during his first season, when the unranked Buckeyes hosted No. 1 Michigan State and won 80-64 behind Keita Bates-diop's 32 points. This will be Ohio State's first game against the nation's top-ranked team since then.
Five of the top-10 meetings during the Holtmann era came during the final nine games of last season, a stretch that saw Ohio State go 1-4. Prior to that, the Buckeyes had won five straight games against top-10 teams, four of which were during the 2019-20 season.
For a second straight week, Ohio State was not included in the top 25. The Buckeyes opened the season ranked No. 17, dropped to No. 19 and then fell out after a Nov. 18 loss at Xavier.