How Eugene Brown III fits on the Ohio State roster

A four-star recruit ranked No. 100 nationally by Rivals, Eugene Brown III enters the upcoming season as one half of Ohio State’s two-man class of 2020.

Brown hails from Southwest DeKalb High School in Decatur, Georgia and committed to play for Chris Holtmann in September of last year.

The Buckeye roster is already filled with wings, so available minutes could come few and far in between for Brown.

At 6-foot-6 and 195 lbs., the freshman has prototypical size and length for a Big Ten wing. He needs to add a little bit of weight to compete physically in the conference, but Brown’s frame is very promising.

Where does Brown fall in the rotation and what skills does he immediately bring to Ohio State basketball? Today we’ll tackle those questions and take a look at Brown’s future role in Columbus in part one of our freshman breakdown.

As mentioned above, wing depth is Ohio State’s major strength entering this season. The Buckeyes have four active players between 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-7: Brown, junior Justin Ahrens, and redshirt juniors Musa Jallow and Justice Sueing.

That list does not include graduate transfer forward Seth Towns and junior guard Duane Washington Jr., both players who will take up minutes on the wing.

Every wing on the roster sans Brown has played meaningful minutes of high-level college basketball. Sueing and Towns are high-profile transfers with experience leading teams. Ahrens and Jallow will have to battle them for minutes. Washington is Ohio State’s leading returning scorer. The opportunities will be thin for Brown entering his first campaign.

Holtmann has a spotty history of giving minutes to freshmen. In his three seasons with Ohio State, only five first-years have played more than 15 minutes per game for Holtmann, and two of those were Kaleb Wesson and E.J. Liddell, who were both thrust into big minutes down low out of necessity.

This is Holtmann’s deepest Buckeye roster by far. Like Ahrens and Jallow before him, there is no clear path to consistent minutes.

However, Brown is a different caliber player than Ahrens and Jallow- he is ranked higher than the two were entering Ohio State and brings a mix of skill, size and athleticism that few have had in recent memory.

There will be game experience available early- Holtmann used a rotation of nine players or more in 11 of the Buckeyes’ first 13 games last season. He almost never has his rotation set in stone until early Big Ten play, when bench minutes are trimmed significantly.

Brown will almost certainly be playing meaningful minutes through the non-conference schedule. If he proves to be capable of staying on the court in Big Ten play, when opponents begin to scout and expose weak links, the young wing has a fighting chance to be a full-time part of Ohio State’s rotation in his first year.

The roster will continue to be a logjam of wing talent entering year No. 2 for Brown. None of the wings on the roster will have exhausted their eligibility after this season, and assuming none transfer or leave the program, Ohio State adds a sixth option besides Brown: the No. 1 player in Ohio’s class of 2021, 6-foot-5 wing Malaki Branham.

College basketball has more fluidity than ever before, though. There will more than likely be roster turnover entering next year, and spots will open up for Brown.

Brown has the pedigree and size to be a future Big Ten star. Pairing with Holtmann’s stellar class of 2021, he should be a large part of Ohio State’s young core for years to come.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I dove into about 25 minutes worth of game film on Brown and dissected his skill set and what he brings to the Buckeyes on both ends of the floor.

RELATED: Film Breakdown: What Eugene Brown III brings to Ohio State

Brown is a lengthy, athletic wing who plays with a high motor and IQ. His best chance to make an early impact at Ohio State will be on the defensive end, as he can really get after it and shut down opposing guards with his elite combination of lateral quickness and length.

Brown is very disciplined on that end of the floor, as he doesn’t seem to commit many questionable fouls and stays in front of guys on the perimeter simply by moving his feet. He’s also capable of blocking shots in perimeter defense with his length, as well as in help side defense due to his high IQ on that end.

He plays the passing lanes well and has really good hands on the perimeter, allowing him to generate a good amount of turnovers which he typically turns into points in transition thanks to his leaping ability.

Offensively, Brown is a three level scorer; however, he is still somewhat raw on that end of the floor. He can hit the three-pointer and mid-range jumper both off the catch and off the dribble, can finish around bigs with his length and soft touch and can also generate points in transition with his big-time athletic ability.

With continued development on that end of the floor at Ohio State, Brown has a chance to grow into a 12-14 point per game guy as an upperclassmen who gives two-way value with his ability to lock down on the defensive end.

Though the Buckeyes added experienced talent like Towns and Sueing, I expect the pair to help the freshman Brown develop even quicker, as he plays with an excellent motor and doesn’t back down from anybody.

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove for another story similar to this one in the coming weeks on incoming freshman Zed Key!