Ohio State suffered a heartbreaking loss in Evanston last night 72-69 after leading by as much 12 points.  The game seemed to be in the Buckeye’s control until late in the second half behind Jon Diebler’s hot hand.Diebler was near-automatic as he hit a career high eight 3’s and finished with 28 points including a break away lay-up to tie the game with just seconds remaining.  However, Northwestern lit it up beyond the arc as well, nailing a three-point basket with just under four seconds remaining giving the Wildcats the win.This is a loss the Buckeyes just could not afford.Going into the game, the Buckeyes stood at 30th in the RPI but their stock was falling (according to realtimerpi.com).  To make the tournament with an at-large bid, most likely, OSU must remain above 30th in the RPI.Northwestern’s RPI, before the OSU game, was 88th but the Wildcats have knocked off many teams ahead of them including a marquee win at Michigan State.Currently, ESPN Bracketologist slates that Bucks’ at a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament before last night’s loss, but look for OSU to slide tremendously.  RealTimeRPI updates their ratings at all hours and OSU has slid from 30th to 31st with a asterisk showing that they will drop even further.What once seemed like a lock for the tourney, now has a lot of work to do.A win over a ranked Illinois squad (RPI: 13), would pad the Buckeye’s tournament resume tremendously.  All eyes are on Sunday when the Bucks battle the Illini in Columbus.�