COLUMBUS, Ohio –– For much of this past college basketball season, it seemed plain that Ohio State was missing one key frontcourt piece in the form of a serviceable center with legitimate size that could take pressure off of the Buckeyes’ undersized, somewhat out-of-position bigs.

With the addition of Indiana transfer Joey Brunk, the return of Kyle Young, the potential return of E.J. Liddell and the development of Zed Key though, the Ohio State frontcourt suddenly finds itself a bit crowded.

Head coach Chris Holtmann said April 28 that a simple adjustment in on-court alignment will render the aforementioned situation a nonissue, but it still stands to reason that a surplus of minutes may not be there for the taking when it comes to a couple of those players on any given night.

“We will not play as quote-unquote small as we did last year,” Holtmann said. “I think that provides more opportunities for Zed and for Joey as well.”

Liddell and Young played 29.4 and 26.3 minutes per game, respectively, at the four and five spots for the Buckeyes last season. With Liddell coming off a first-team All-Big Ten campaign last season, and given the fact that he’d be turning down a chance to go pro in favor of another season with the Buckeyes, it seems unlikely that he’ll see a reduction in playing time.

The same goes for Young, who opted to come back for a fifth season with the program a couple weeks ago. The pair may have been overmatched in terms of pure size for most of the season, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Buckeyes got all the way to the Big Ten Championship Game and secured a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament without a true center down low.

RELATED: Young says Oral Roberts loss ‘hard to process’, but helped inspire return

Young said part of his discussions with the Buckeye coaching staff upon his decision to return was the topic of exactly how his role might evolve in what will be his final season of college hoops.

“We don’t know exactly how things are gonna look, but I plan to continue developing my game,” Young said. “Even as it was this past year, just being able to stretch out to the wing, shoot, more low-post options, stuff like that. So just developing my game offensively and defensively I think will be able to help. I’m still gonna be doing the things I’m used to doing. I’ll still probably be guarding the five at times, stuff like that too. So those are things that won’t change. But just planning to develop my game to be more of a threat on the offensive end.”

MORE: Holtmann discusses what it will take for Buckeyes to land a 5-star big man

The physical wear and tear on Young, Liddell and other Buckeyes that had to contend with opposing 7-footers was obvious by the end of last season, but Young said if he’s tasked with that same assignment in 2021-22, he’s more than willing to accept it once again.

“In no way do I mind guarding their team’s biggest player, but it definitely can be weird on your body when you’re outsized,” Young said. “I know the same could probably be [said] with E.J., I don’t know how he feels about it. It’ll be nice to have another big body in there that’ll be able to battle with these other big dudes.”

Brunk has never played more than 20 minutes per game in a season, and even if he fills a void on the Buckeye roster, it would be difficult to imagine him logging more than that number next season.

Key may be the variable hardest to foresee, given the strides that he could take from his first to second seasons in the program. The 6-foot-8 forward saw just 11.7 minutes per game last year, but Holtmann has high hopes for his offseason development.

RELATED: Holtmann says 3-point shooting will be a part of Zed Key’s future

“I’m really excited about the step Zed can take for us moving forward,” Holtmann said. “I think his offseason, along with a couple of our young guards, is as critical to our team next year as anything. And then the rest of it we’ll kind of figure it out there once we know what our roster looks like in a couple months.”

The Buckeye coach believes some of the questions about his frontcourt will figure themselves out when the roster is set following Liddell and Duane Washington’s decisions, but having options may end up being a good problem to have for Holtmann and company.