2009-10 Basketball Predictions

The Ohio State Men's basketball team comes into the 2009 season with a lot of optimism. The Buckeyes won 22 games last season and lost a heartbreaker to Siena in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament. With basically the entire backcourt and big man Dallas Lauderdale returning, there is no reason not to expect the Buckeyes to make some serious noise in the Big 10.

Lets take a look at the games on the Bucks schedule:

Non Conference

Lock it up (Games that should be over with by halftime)

Alcorn State, James Madison, Lipscomb, St. Francis (PA), Eastern Michigan, Presbyterian, Deleware State, Cleveland State

Toss Ups

UNC, Cal/Syracuse (Depends on how we do against UNC), Florida State, Butler, West Virginia

I see us going 10-3 in the non-conference, which would make us 10-2 going into Big 10 play (I think we lose @ WVU in January). With 8 games against inferior opponents and 5 against teams similar to our caliber, we could be anywhere from 8-5 to 13-0. College basketball is unpredictable, especially early in the year, but with the experience that we have in the backcourt I think 10-3 is reasonable.

Conference Play

Home Games

Indiana, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Minnesota, Penn State, Iowa, Purdue, Michigan, Illinois

I see us winning 7 out of our 9 home games. I think we go 1-1 against Purdue and Illinois and 6-1 in the other 7 home games.

Away Games

Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Purdue, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan State, Penn State

I think we go 5-4 in our away games. Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, Michigan State, and Penn State are all going to be extremely tough. Going 3-2 against these 5 would be a great accomplishment. The other 4 games will be tough as well, and with playing on the road being so tough in college basketball, I think we go 3-1. That puts us at 6-3 away.

Based on my calculations, I see us going 22-9 (12-6 Big 10) this year. I think we can win at least 2 games in the Big 10 tournament, which would put us at 24-10 going into Selection Sunday. That should be good for a 4 seed. We have a very tough schedule this year, especially out of conference, and we should get rewarded for that.