At the beginning of the 2016-17 Big Ten season the Ohio State Buckeyes found themselves lock in combat with a team that would eventually be the best team (Purdue) in the Big Ten during regular season. The game would go down to the wire and the OSU Buckeye would lose the game to the Boilermakers by one point due to a missed free throw and a silly foul at the end of the game.
Fast forward to midway point of the season and the Bucks find themselves in a runaway game against the TTUN which they won by four points. We reached the last part of the season and the Buckeyes host the Wisconsin Badgers and beat them soundly from start to finish by a ten point margin 83-73. In between this game there are victories over the Michigan State Spartans and the upstart Minnesota Gophers a bit of payback from an early season 10 point loss.
A two point loss to the Northwestern Wildcats brings us to five teams dancing the sweet dance during this year March Madness all of whom the Buckeye beat or nearly beat. Not to mention the Virginia Cavaliers (another close game) and the Providence Friars who the Bucks beat at home.
How a team could give losses and close calls to this many NCAA tournament teams and end the season on such a downward spiral? This is the epitome of FRUSTRATION. It's like this team was made to complete in the post season. But no this team was snubbed by the NIT selection committee. Additional FRUSTRATION.
The head coach of this year's team was given a vote of confidence by the athletic director and 24 hours later the Bucks lose to the team (Rutgers) in the B1G Tournament. So who wins the B1G Tournament? You guess it another team (TTUN) the Buckeye beat during the regular season. More FRUSTRATION.
Last year's parting shot was “We got rid of some problems." Clearly there were more problems than were realized based on this year's final analysis. So what's the deal? There are some questions that need to be address or the Buckeye are trending in the wrong direction.
Oh and by the way as of this writing three of teams are still dancing (Purdue, TTUN, Wisconsin). Wasn't this supposed to be a down year for the Big Ten? The B1G has three teams advancing and the ACC only had one (North Carolina Tar Heels). Makes you wonder what could have been. Now is a good time to mention the Bucks will be facing the Heels in New Orleans this coming December as part of the four team CBS Sports Classic.
