2015-16 Ohio State Buckeyes Basketball Season Preview

BTPowerhouse previews the upcoming season for the Ohio State Buckeyes and what fans should expect for the program heading into the 2015-16 season. The ‘2015-16 BTPowerhouse Season Preview’ series will take an in-depth look at all 14 teams in the Big Ten heading into the 2015-16 season with analysis on each program’s previous season, offseason departures, new additions, strengths, weakness, top player, and top storylines. Each post will also include predictions on each team’s starting lineup, season performance and commentary from a local “insider” who covers each team. The Ohio State Buckeyes are coming off perhaps the best run in program history. Since Thad Matta took over in Columbus in 2004, the Buckeyes have not only qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 9 of the last 11 seasons, but the program has also made the Final Four twice, the Sweet Sixteen five times, and has won five Big Ten titles. It’s been an incredible run of success for Matta and Ohio State, but a new season brings new challenges. Last year’s team was a dangerous one, but never truly contended at the top of the Big Ten or for a deep NCAA Tournament run. The emergence of freshmen superstar D’Angelo Russell certainly made things interesting, but there simply wasn’t enough around him to make the roster comparable to Matta’s earlier Buckeye squads. Now, with D’Angelo Russell off to the NBA and the departure of numerous other starters and bench options, there will be plenty of new faces for Ohio State this season. Matta has been able to overcome roster turnover pretty regularly during his tenure in Columbus, but this year could be unique. Not only because the roster loses so much in raw contributions, but also because freshmen like Russell simply don’t come around every year…

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