Trying to figure out the Buckeyes. So far they look better than last year but with two big caveats:
- That isn't saying much, and
- It is really hard to tell because the opposition hasn't been very good.
They host Notre Dame Sunday in a game that the WorldWide Leader says they should win (74.2%) and they might be ranked next week if they do.
Next week they host Directional-Michigan in a game that ESPN says should be a laugher (98.6%).
Turkey week they host yet another laugher (Mt. St. Mary's, 97.5%) then travel to Pittsburgh on Black Friday. The Pittsburgh game seems to have been scheduled to attract the least possible attention from Ohio State fans. It is the day between Thanksgiving and The Game so I'm guessing the bulk of Ohio State's fans will not know it happened until sometime in December or January when they look up from Football long enough to check out the BB team. Nonetheless, ESPN says that the Buckeyes should win at Pitt (58.8%).
After the Pitt game, the Buckeyes play their two December league games and the split is interesting. They go to Evanston to play Northwestern on Saturday, December 6 (that is the day of the B1GCG so if the football team makes that, practically zero Ohio State fans will even know this is going on) then host #14 Illinois on Tuesday, December 9. I find the split interesting because if it were reversed I would be fairly confident that Ohio State would lose in Champaign and beat the Wildcats at home but with this split 2-0, 0-2, 1-1, and 1-1 the other way all seem reasonably likely. ESPN has them as a slight underdog in both games (42% at NU, 45.7% vs IL).
They finish December with two coin-toss neutral site OOC games (49.1% vs WVU in Cleveland, 56.1% vs UNC in Atlanta [that seems WAY high]) and yet another home gimmie (98.1% vs Grambling).
