COLUMBUS, Ohio - With 16 practices already in the books, the opening of the 2019-2020 men’s basketball season is quickly approaching for Chris Holtmann and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

It’s exciting to look at how the team will perform in Holtmann’s third year as head coach coming off an unexpected season that resulted in an NCAA tournament win, but this season will be unlike any other for Holtmann who is personally entering his ninth year as a head coach.

The freshmen and sophomores will see a significant amount of time this season with only five upperclassmen expected to get significant minutes, so there will be a lot of young and inexperienced players seeing the court this year. This isn’t a knock on their skill level, as the Buckeyes had the No. 6 and No. 1 ranked recruiting classes in the Big Ten in 2018 and 2019, respectively, but just an acknowledgement that it will take time for them to adjust to the college game.

While Holtmann has a lot of talent waiting in the wings with this year’s freshman class, the Buckeyes still have some players, namely Musa Jallow and Justin Ahrens, who are dealing with injuries, so Holtmann says that Ohio State isn’t quite where they were at this point last season.

“I think as a team, you know, we're doing all right, we're still not completely healthy. You know, I would say this group is not, not quite as far along as last year's group was in certain areas,” Holtmann said. “And I think that can probably be attributed to a variety of reasons. Overall youth, more guys learning new stuff.”

Despite the young squad, the majority of the Buckeyes’ contributors from last season are back in Kaleb and Andre Wesson as well as Kyle Young to help lead the new guys. Even with the challenges that may come from coaching up the seven or so underclassmen, Holtmann is still excited to see how the leaders on this team will help bring them up to speed on the Ohio State culture and adjusting to the college game.

“But the one thing I am excited about is - I'm excited about a lot of things - but I think that, I really believe. that we will go as our leadership takes us this year,” Holtmann said. “And when you talk about CJ Walker, and Andre [Wesson] and Kaleb [Wesson] and Kyle [Young] and some of our older guys, I think we'll go as they take us and I'm excited to see them continuing to grow in those important roles.”

For as much coaching as Holtmann, Ryan Pedon, Terry Johnson and Jake Diebler can provide, a lot of the support for the young players will come from the upperclassmen. This is part of the culture Holtmann is trying to instill at Ohio State by providing these players with a veteran presence to work through issues on and off the court.

“No, I know, I think part of my reason I'm saying that is because that is the expectation for older guys in a program is that they'll lead it the way we expect them to lead it,” Holtmann said. “And that is the role that these guys need to continue to move into and you know, I think your team is generally as strong as your leadership.”

Going into his third season as head coach, Holtmann is already beginning to see results from instilling this culture. Young came in the same year Holtmann began, and Young has completely bought into the system and wants to help these young players work through whatever problems they’re going through.

Young himself has gone through his fair share of issues whether it be injuries or not seeing time on the court, so he’s an exemplary example of what Holtmann is looking for, and Young has embraced the opportunity.

“Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Especially being an older guy now going through it and coming in with him, just trying to understand his culture and what he wants. We've kind of seen that these past two years," Young said. “So just as me trying to be a leader really just connected with some of these younger guys, sharing my personal experiences from when I was a freshman or sophomore and kind of some of the tough situations I had to go through or struggles I had, because there's going to be a lot of ups and downs, so it's just really communicating with them and making sure they understand, like, the things they are going to go through.”

The Buckeyes’ season opener against Cedarville is now less than two weeks away, so there isn’t much time left for evaluation before practices and exhibitions turn into 48-minute contests. While it’s difficult for Holtmann to fully evaluate where his team is at through just 16 practices, he already has an idea of what Ohio State needs to work on, so it’ll need to be quick work for Holtmann and the staff to get things into shape before the first tip-off of the season.

“Yeah, I think it's probably all of that. Like, just defensively we're not quite there. Our ball handling and decision making...it's not quite there and it's something we obviously struggled with last year,” Holtmann said. “I'm not saying we can't we just - is it the byproduct of having seven freshmen and sophomores? I don't know. Maybe it's something I'm not doing well, but that's just an honest assessment of kind of where we're at, and I think we just...we got to continue to make strides.”