As the lone returning point guard on the Ohio State roster, C.J. Walker burdens a heavy load entering the upcoming season. The 6-foot-1 guard will also be just one of two seniors with any experience playing for the Buckeyes. The stakes are high for the Walker in his last season of collegiate basketball.

In his abruptly ended junior season, Walker shared the point guard duties with top-50 freshman D.J. Carton for 20 games. When Carton stepped away from the team (and eventually transferred), the keys to the Buckeye offense were officially handed to Walker. His points per game jumped from 7.5 to 11.1 and his assists skied to a team-high 4.2 per game in the 11 contests without Carton.

Walker’s flaws are clear: he is undersized and struggles to shoot consistently from three-point range. Luckily, the Buckeyes will inject two high-quality transfer scorers into the offense in Seth Towns and Justice Sueing, and bring back second-leading scorer Duane Washington Jr., giving Walker a defined role for the upcoming season.

The fifth-year guard has had a very successful career. He won 49 games in two seasons at Florida State and played in two NCAA Tournaments with the Seminoles, making the Elite Eight as a sophomore.

After transferring to Ohio State, he battled in practice with a Buckeye team that made the tournament in 2019, and likely would have been a part of his fourth consecutive tournament team in 2020 had the season played out.

Walker will be Ohio State’s engine in his quest for a fifth postseason in five years. He is a true floor general who makes the extra pass, finds the hot hand, and controls the tempo of games. A sometimes overly unselfish player, Walker created innumerable open three-pointers for the Buckeyes last season.

It is evident that Walker excels most in two areas as a pass-first lead guard: the pick and roll set in the half court and leading the controlled fastbreak.

Chris Holtmann’s offensive sets often revolve around one simple concept: an early ball screen action that develops into the overall action. Oftentimes this entails a dribble handoff with a big man at the top of the three-point line or a quick pick-and-pop that leads into off-ball screening for shooters or cutters.

Walker is at his best initiating the offense at the top of the arc, letting the play run its course, and receiving the ball in a second pick-and-roll situation.

In the clip above, Walker pops out to the wing for an isolated pick and roll with Kyle Young. This is a prime example of a secondary screen for Walker leading to multiple options on offense. He can create open looks for anyone on the court with a spread pick and roll.

He sees both defenders playing him to his dominant left hand and rejects the screen, creating an open jumper for himself. Walker was deadly in the midrange last season and has an impressively quick pull-up jump shot.

Against Villanova, the floor is spaced almost perfectly, with two shooters in the corners and Young dragging his defender out to the top of the three-point line. Using Kaleb Wesson’s screen as a decoy, Walker lets Wesson slide into the paint, forcing the weak side defender to commit over to thwart the interior threat.

Walker waits for all of this to play out with a hesitation dribble and finds Duane Washington in an instant with a cross court pass straight into the open area. The pass is an incredibly difficult one to make- across the court with one hand and four defenders in between him and Washington, all with a fraction of time to get it off.

Passes like these are commonplace for Walker, who boasts good timing and touch with both hands on cross-court passes and in the two-man game, where he forces defenders to commit and makes well-timed pocket passes.

Against Iowa the offense moves directly into a double screen with E.J. Liddell and Kaleb Wesson at the top of the arc. With three defenders directly involved, two will often commit to either the ball handler or roll man. Walker waits for the second defender to hedge towards him and slips a bounce pass to the popping Wesson while Liddell drags the roll defender into the paint.

Walker’s patience in the half-court is outstanding- he does not force passes into tight spaces and he waits for the court to open up before committing to a single option.

Along with patience, his ability to see one pass ahead is what leads to open looks.

Instead of giving the ball up immediately to a nearby Andre Wesson, Walker holds for one more dribble and sees Justin Ahrens moving down to the corner. Wesson likely would have swung the ball straight to Ahrens had Walker kicked out to him, but Walker saved time and created an open look just by skipping the in-between pass.

You see this consistently with Walker, not just with his assists, but in the overall way he moves the ball. There is always an intent behind his passes. He sees the end goal, whether it be a shooter in the corner or a cut to the basket. He rarely fires early in the clock and seems content passing up a good shot for an even better one.

One of the hardest aspects of basketball to manage effectively is the fastbreak. Especially with younger players, it seems the goal is to move as quickly as possible from one basket to the other and shoot as soon as there is a sliver of an opening.

Walker does not fit this mold. He is unbelievably patient when it comes to setting up an advantage situation, sometimes to a fault. Walker has almost mastered the art of the secondary fastbreak- the slower developing, more controlled break after the initial run out.

Here, Walker picks the pocket of a Fort Wayne player and appears to be on his way to a quick fast break layup. Instead of breaking as fast as possible to the hoop, he stops on a dime, recognizes that the Buckeyes do not have a distinct advantage, and waits for the trailing shooter.

This is a staple of Walker’s fastbreak offense. He hits trailers as well as any guard in the country. Notice all four Fort Wayne players on screen immediately run towards the basket to stop a layup. Walker’s patience and controlled tempo sucks the defenders in and opens up opportunities for players behind the break to spot up.

The secondary fastbreak is also effective after a made basket. Roy Williams and North Carolina have made the after-basket fastbreak famous. When the opponent has just scored and is jogging or backpedaling back on defense, chances to beat them down the court open up.

Walker rushes the ball up the court while Michigan is scrambling to find matchups on defense early in the game. Andre Wesson takes advantage of the confusion and slips through the defense for a dunk.

Walker makes the easy pass here, but the point of this is not the assist. Without Kaleb Wesson next season, Ohio State will be smaller and faster with almost all of its lineups. With E.J. Liddell and Kyle Young running the court hard and shooters spacing out quickly, the Buckeyes will have far more chances to push the ball up the court after a made basket like this.

Holtmann allowed Walker and Carton to utilize a quicker pace after baskets occasionally last season, but the Buckeyes will almost certainly speed up the game this year without a dedicated post presence like Wesson.

Even on a more traditional fastbreak, Walker mixes his speed with a solid stop-and-go game to get to his dominant left and finish. If he can get to the basket more consistently and draw defenders towards him, Walker’s game will take leaps forward. He shot nearly 50-percent from inside the arc last season, already a very impressive number for someone his size.

Walker’s control of the tempo is where he stands out in the Big Ten. He does not have eye-popping athleticism or shooting numbers, but playing the classic floor general role suits him perfectly.

With a new era of Buckeye basketball on the horizon, Ohio State’s senior point guard will be instrumental in the upcoming season. With the offense handed to him and two years with Chris Holtmann behind him, a senior breakout could be coming from C.J. Walker.