The Ohio State men’s basketball team is the No. 16 team in the nation in the newly released Associated Press top 25 poll.
At 2-0, the Buckeyes have climbed two spots from their No. 18 preseason ranking.
The Buckeyes opened the regular season as a ranked team for the first time in five years. They then opened the year with a 65-56 home win against Cincinnati last Wednesday before improving to 2-0 with Sunday’s 76-56 win against UMass Lowell.
Those wins moved Ohio State to 20-9 overall as a ranked team during coach Chris Holtmann’s three seasons with the program. Wednesday’s home game against Villanova will be only the fifth time the Buckeyes have played a ranked team while also being ranked, and they are 1-3 in those games and 0-1 at home.
The Wildcats remained at No. 10 in the new poll.
Two Big Ten teams are ahead of Ohio State: No. 3 Michigan State and No. 7 Maryland.
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