Welcome back, Ohio State.
For the first time since dropping out on Jan. 20, the Buckeyes have returned to the Associated Press top-25 poll. They're No. 25 in this week's rankings, released on Monday.
| Date of poll release | Ohio State's ranking |
|---|---|
| Preseason | No. 18 |
| Nov. 11 | No. 16 |
| Nov. 18 | No. 10 |
| Nov. 25 | No. 10 |
| Dec. 2 | No. 6 |
| Dec. 9 | No. 3 |
| Dec. 16 | No. 5 |
| Dec. 23 | No. 2 |
| Dec. 30 | No. 5 |
| Jan. 6 | No. 11 |
| Jan. 13 | No. 21 |
| Jan. 20 | Unranked |
| Jan. 27 | Unranked |
| Feb. 3 | Unranked |
| Feb. 10 | Unranked |
| Feb. 17 | No. 25 |
Ohio State's appearance in the poll comes after the team won five of its past six games. It has beat Northwestern (road), Indiana (home), Michigan (road), Rutgers (home) and Purdue (home) in the past few weeks, with the lone slip-up coming in a 13-point road loss to Wisconsin.
Initially, the Buckeyes fell out of the top-25 on Jan. 20 while in the midst of a stretch during which they lost six of seven games.
They remained on the outside of the rankings for four weeks in a row. In last week's poll, only two voters had them in the top 25, with Kansas City Star reporter Jesse Newell ranking them No. 13 and LA Daily News reporter Scott Wolf placing them at No. 25.
Three other Big Ten teams are ranked inside the top 25: No. 7 Maryland, No. 9 Penn State and No. 20 Iowa.
The Buckeyes return to the court on Thursday in Iowa City, Iowa. The game against the Hawkeyes will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN. They'll also take on Maryland at home on Sunday before the next set of rankings gets released.
