Searching for a reason to feel good about the Ohio State men's basketball team heading into the summer? Look no further.
Chris Holtmann's Buckeyes may have lost in the opening round of this past NCAA Tournament to No. 15 seed Oral Roberts, but college basketball insider Jon Rothstein sees Ohio State moving up a rung from its No. 2-seed status in the coming season.
As part of the "Rothstein 45" rankings, the Buckeyes appeared at No. 4, behind only 2021 national runner-up Gonzaga at No. 3, 2018 national champion Villanova at No. 2, and UCLA, which comes in at No. 1 after losing in the Final Four this past season.
The Buckeyes are the highest ranked Big Ten program on the list, although Purdue, Michigan and Maryland all turned up in the top 10 as well, coming in at No. 5, No. 7 and No. 9, respectively.
Seven Big Ten teams appeared in the list of 45, with Rothstein placing Michigan State at No. 28, Indiana at No. 31 and 2020 No. 1 seed Illinois all the way down at No. 33.
Aside from the rankings, Rothstein also projected the starting five for each team in his list, and there weren't any surprises on his Ohio State predictions.
In this scenario, the only change to the Buckeyes' starting five from last season would be the addition of Penn State transfer guard Jamari Wheeler, who is favored to replace departing senior CJ Walker at the point guard position for Ohio State.
RELATED: New transfer additions have plenty of history with Holtmann, Buckeyes
Rothstein's projected lineup assumes that 2020 first-team All-Big Ten performer E.J. Liddell and third-team honoree Duane Washington Jr. both return to the program after declaring for the NBA Draft in the offseason.
Rothstein lists Wheeler, Indiana transfer big man Joey Brunk and incoming freshmen Malaki Branham and Kalen Etzler as "key newcomers" for the Buckeyes, who have lost both Musa Jallow and Ibrahima Diallo to the transfer portal this offseason.
RELATED: How does the Diallo transfer impact recruiting for Ohio State?
Besides some changes in on-court personnel, the Buckeyes are also expected to make a new assistant coaching hire at some point this offseason, as Terry Johnson, who served as Holtmann's "defensive coordinator" for the past seven seasons, left the program to join Matt Painter and Purdue in April.
RELATED: Terry Johnson opens up on move from Ohio State to Purdue
