The Outlook for Ohio State Basketball and the Second-Year Football Buckeyes

Ohio State couldn't beat Michigan, but the basketball Buckeyes still look like one of the nation's best teams.With less than three weeks to go until Selection Sunday, that's where we start on this week's Real Pod Wednesdays, discussing the outlook for Ohio State basketball following Sunday's 92-87 loss to the Wolverines.Although there's been a lot to like about this year's Buckeyes, particularly how explosive they've been offensively, Sunday's loss exposed some problems – Ohio State's not great defensively, and Hunter Dickinson exploited the Buckeyes' lack of size – and we discuss whether the Buckeyes can fix those issues and how problematic it will be if they can't. We also make our predictions for how the Buckeyes will finish out the regular season, how far they'll go in the Big Ten Tournament, what seed they'll earn in the NCAA Tournament and how deep they'll ultimately go in the Big Dance.(Note: This podcast was recorded on Tuesday afternoon, prior to Michigan State's win over Illinois, so that was not factored into our discussion about the Spartans and Illini.)In the second half of this week's episode (beginning at 39:30), we shift gears to football for a discussion on the Buckeyes' second-year players. Which members of the class of 2020 do we expect to make the biggest impact in 2021, and who are we most intrigued to watch this fall? Kourt Williams, Cody Simon, Lathan Ransom, Ty Hamilton and Mitchell Melton are among the Buckeyes we discuss.Also, at our listeners' requests, we select some of our favorite non-superstar Buckeyes from the past decade – Amedeo Della Valle, BB Landers and Kenny Guiton all make appearances – and remember some of the most impactful walk-ons in recent Ohio State history.