Why Michigan's championship may have been the boost Ohio State needed

The Big Ten has officially taken the crown as the king of college sports. It would be hard to argue, as the conference has won three straight championships on the gridiron (Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana) and now boasts both the men’s (Michigan) and women’s (UCLA) basketball champions.

Ohio State has been a large part of that hostile takeover on the football field, but on the basketball side of things… not so much. Conference supremacy aside, can Buckeye Nation really be happy about Michigan hoisting the trophy as the best college basketball team in the land? That’s a tough pill to swallow. But maybe it’s just the punch in the gut OSU needs to wake a sleeping giant.

Ohio State has always been one of the blue bloods on the football field, but the Buckeyes have quite the basketball history as well. Despite having just one national championship on the hardwood and recent early exits in March, the Scarlet and Gray have historically shown well in the NCAA Tournament. Did you know that officially, Ohio State is tied with Michigan State for sixth all-time with 10 Final Four appearances? The number is actually 11 appearances if you count the vacated 1999 season. That was tops in the conference until UCLA jumped to the Big Ten. Let that sink in. Tied with the Spartans. More Final Four appearances than Indiana or arch-rival Michigan. But the question remains… what will it take to bring this program back to national prominence?

Maybe seeing the Wolverines hoist the championship trophy on Monday night is just the push the Buckeyes needed. After seeing Michigan take home the football championship in 2023, Ohio State poured vast amounts of resources into the 2024 season. The Buckeyes would have one of the highest-paid rosters in all of college football, and it paid off with OSU’s first championship in ten years.

Whether Jake Diebler can take the basketball program to the promised land remains to be seen, but seeing Dusty May lead the Maize and Blue to a championship in just two seasons stings quite a bit. After all, athletic director Ross Bjork chose Diebler over May as one of his very first acts on the job. May took a team with just eight wins to a Sweet 16 in year one and the aforementioned championship in year two.

Diebler is going to get another chance in the coming season to prove that Bjork didn’t make as big a blunder as it looks right now. But with Bruce Thornton graduating, John Mobley Jr. testing the NBA waters, and rumors of Devin Royal being courted by UConn in the transfer portal, it will take more than one five-star recruit to get Ohio State anywhere near the level of its rival. And if it doesn’t happen soon, Michigan may have unknowingly forced Bjork’s hand.

We all know football is king in Columbus, but there simply is no reason why basketball can’t be just as successful. Maybe seeing the Wolverines cut down the nets was the poke needed to wake this giant from its slumber.

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This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Ohio State basketball is a sleeping giant that Michigan just poked

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