Confidence returning in Ohio state men’s basketball team

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Ohio State Buckeyes men’s basketball team has gotten pretty hot of late. Coming into Thursday night’s road game against the No. 20 Iowa Hawkeyes, Chris Holtmann’s squad has won five of their last six games dating back to the last week in January.

Earlier this week, the Buckeyes rejoined the AP Top 25 as the final ream on the list, while also currently sitting at No. 9 in Ken Pomeroy’s advanced analytical rankings. With the recent return to their early season form, confidence in the basketball Bucks has grown amongst fans as well.

In the most recent SB Nation FanPulse survey, Buckeye Nation gave the squad a 21-point bump in confidence over the past week. After peaking at 100 percent of OSU fans being confident in the direction of the program back in the fall, last week, the number dipped to its season low, coming in at just 43 percent of respondents believing that things were moving in the right direction.

However, after wins over Rutgers and Purdue, that number bounced back up to 64 percent this week, the highest it has been since Jan. 16. It’s nice to see things moving in the right direction again.

With just two and a half weeks left in the regular season for the Buckeyes, the vast majority of Big Ten fans who participated in the SBN FanPulse poll see them as an afterthought in the race for the top spot in the league. OSU only received 0.6 percent of the votes for the best team in the B1G right now, which, honestly, seems a bit high.

But, they will have a chance to not only climb up that list, but also to knock down the current king of the mountain when they host the No. 7 Maryland Terrapins this Sunday, Feb. 23 at 4 p.m. ET at the Schottenstein Center.

This will be a massive game, as it is their last contest against a team currently in the AP poll, however, some difficult challenges await as Ohio State closes the season with games against Michigan, Illinois, and Michigan State (after a road game against Nebraska).

So, if you want to be in the building when the Bucks host the Terps in a game that could have a huge impact in OSU’s postseason seeding, you can get tickets HERE!