Ohio State men’s basketball tournament bracket projections

Last week, the Ohio State Buckeyes split their games — winning at home against Northwestern and losing on the road to Maryland. That was to be expected. Also to be expected: the Buckeyes living on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Though, it could be worse. With four regular season games left, OSU has a trio of opportunities against teams that currently sit in the AP Rankings. Wins in any of those contests would absolutely help their cause and strengthen their résumé for the tourney.

Let’s go around the horn and see what the lay of the land looks like as we head into the final few weeks of the college basketball regular season.

What’s left on the schedule?

Here’s a list of currently ranked AP teams that OSU will face before season’s end.

vs. No. 22 Iowa — Feb. 25 (7 p.m. ET | BTN)

@ No. 14 Purdue — March 2 (2 p.m. ET | TBD [either ESPN or ESPN2])

@ No. 19 Wisconsin — March 10 (3:30 p.m. ET | CBS)

Since last week, everybody but the Hawkeyes has moved up. The Boilermakers moved up one spot, the Badgers moved up three, but the Hawkeyes dropped a spot.

And here’s the lone remaining “can’t lose” contest: a road meeting with NU.

@ Northwestern — March 6 (9 p.m. ET | BTN)

What are the projections saying?

CBS Sports (Jerry Palm) — Updated in the wee hours of Monday morning, Palm has Ohio State (No. 10) facing Baylor (the No. 7) in the West Region. Last week he had OSU facing Washington in 9v8 seed.

USA Today (Scott Gleeson) — Ohio State (No. 9) facing St. John’s (No. 8) in the East. In this scenario, the Round of 32 may be the ceiling, as the winner would most likely face Duke (the No. 1 seed). It’s the same place the Bucks were last week; the only difference is that Gleeson has St. John’s instead of Ole Miss.

Bracketville — The most intriguing of the predictions. Here, Ohio State (No. 10) is projected to face defending national champions Villanova (No. 7) in the South Region. Winner would face either Tennessee (No. 2) or Wright State (No. 15).

The Big Lead (Jason Lisk) — Not only did Lisk keep his overall seed projections, but he also completed a full bracket. This week, he has OSU (No. 10) facing Cincinnati (No.7) in the West. These teams have already met this season in Cincy, and the projected grudge match would be in Tulsa. Lisk has the Buckeyes ending the season at 20-13.

ESPN (Joe Lunardi) — The Nova-Bucks matchup is shared by Lunardi, too. He’s feeling the Buckeyes as a No. 10 taking on Villanova (a No. 7) in the South Region.

NET Ranking

Ohio State is No. 42 on the Feb. 24 edition of the rankings. Amongst Big Ten schools, that’s seventh best. Since last week, the Buckeyes have moved up two spots in the NET.

Below is the NET for each Big Ten school.