No. 11 Ohio State will face No. 6 Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament

The Ohio State men’s basketball team (19-14, 8-12) opened the 2018-19 season going 12-1 and getting as high as No. 13 in the AP Poll and No. 12 in the Coaches Poll. However, as the calendar turned to 2019, they lost five straight games, and struggled to keep their collective heads above water in a historically brutal Big Ten Conference.

Despite the ups and downs of the season, head coach Chris Holtmann has managed to get his team back to the Big Dance for the second-straight year, as it was announced selection Sunday, that the No. 11 Ohio State Buckeyes would take on the No. 6 Iowa State Cyclones (23-11, 9-9) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The teams will square off in Tulsa, Okla., on Friday, March 22. The game time will be announced soon.

The back-to-back tournament trips follow a two-season hiatus for the Buckeyes under former head coach Thad Matta, who took OSU dancing in nine of his 13 seasons in Columbus.

Last season, Holtmann’s Buckeyes entered the tournament as a five-seed, and beat No. 12 South Dakota State (81-73), before falling to No. 4 Gonzaga 90-84.

Land-Grant Holy Land will have you covered before, during, and after Friday’s NCAA Tournament matchup.