COLUMBUS, Ohio – This season marks only the second time that the Buckeyes have been a double-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament since the tourney started seeding teams in 1979. That means that the Buckeyes have generally known they were in the field before Selection Sunday ever rolled around.

This season was different as the Buckeyes were very much on the cusp of the field. Many believed that the team had done enough to gain admittance to the 68-team field of March Madness while others said that the Buckeyes and their 8-12 regular season conference record would come up short and miss the field.

A No. 11 seed in the Midwest region with a Friday night date against Iowa State will mark the second time in two years under Chris Holtmann that the Buckeyes have made the field and the 8th time since 2010 that the Buckeyes have made the ‘Dance’ (missing 2016, 2017).

The historical significance was not lost on the Ohio State head coach.

“When you do this, you certainly understand that it is not an entitlement in getting to the NCAA Tournament, it is something that has got to be earned,” Holtmann said. “It is hard to earn those and consistently earn those.”

It was a joyous moment when the Ohio State logo went up on the television as the brackets were released earlier on Sunday evening.

“We had a great moment as a Buckeye family,” senior guard Keyshawn Woods said after the team learned its fate.

Woods transferred in at the start of this season under the graduate transfer rule and this will be his second time to the tournament.

C.J. Jackson is also a senior and was part of the Ohio State team that went to the tournament last year and defeated South Dakota State and pushed Gonzaga to the brink before finally coming up short.

That 2017-18 team lost a lot with the departure of three seniors and the early departure of Big Ten Player of the Year, Keita Bates-Diop. This 2018-19 team was supposed to be a transitional team that many picked in the bottom cut of the Big Ten.

This team had to fight through a lot to get to the dance, a fact that is not lost on Jackson.

“All season long we have been leaning on each other, through the struggles,” Jackson said. “Obviously this year had its ups and downs and just to see our name pop up there was a sigh of relief, but we are excited for the new opportunity.”

The Buckeyes opened the season at 12-1 and 2-0 in the Big Ten before a disastrous January saw the team lose six of seven games including a difficult loss at Rutgers. Ohio State would go 5-3 in its next eight games, including a 90-70 win over Iowa before the team would lose Kaleb Wesson for what would end up being a three-game suspension for a violation of Athletic Department rules.

Ohio State had to find one more win to shore up its resume and found it in the Big Ten Tournament over Indiana, but even that was not a cure-all as the Buckeyes had to sweat things out.

Holtmann sounded like he felt the Buckeyes were in after the team’s B1G Tourney run came to an end against Michigan State, but he admitted that as time went on, the nerves of the unknown crept in.

“Yesterday I felt that we were solidly on the 11 line, maybe even a 10,” Holtmann said. “As each out passed today and I studied the numbers, I studied myself into absolute paranoia and I just had to stop. Thank God we had practice. I just could stop looking at it. I just got too worked up.”

This will be Holtmann’s 5th trip to the tournament, his second with Ohio State after three trips with Butler at a previous stop.

The waiting game last season was nothing like what it ended up being this year.

“It was much better last year, way better, slept better,” Holtmann said. “Then it was you were looking at 5-12 games which are really dangerous games, which proved to be really dangerous for us last year. We knew it was 4-5-6 last year. This year we thought 10-11 or play-in.”

For the seniors, it means another chance to play with the team. The next loss will be the last loss of the season.

So, the goal is to keep winning.

“That was not our goal, (only) just to make the tournament,” Jackson said. “We are not here just to play the one game in the tournament. We are here to actually win some games and make a run.”

It may have been a long wait, waiting to hear their names called in the third of the four regions to be announced. Those early tense moments quickly melted to moments of exuberance.

“It just took a major shift in the room and everyone was cheering and happy and hugging and that is what it is about,” Woods added. “You just want to see everyone happy and smiling. Hopefully our fans and Buckeye Nation is just as excited as we are.”

The players will get Monday off while the coaches will go over every clip that they can get their hands on of the Cyclones of Iowa State.

“We want to be there as long as we can,” Holtmann said. “We know that we have work to do.”