Ohio State basketball molds identity through preseason practices

COLUMBUS, Ohio —Did Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann overschedule his team in the early part of the season? Maybe.

It’s something that’s been on his mind as preseason practices ramp up ahead of the Buckeyes’ season opener against Akron Nov. 9. There’s a lot of questions to be answered, especially in the backcourt without C.J. Walker or Duane Washington Jr. There’s still a lot of plays to be installed.

There’s still a lot of things on Holtmann’s practice checklist, but he still sees potential.

“I like our group’s leadership,” Holtmann said after practice Thursday. “We have to figure out some things in our perimeter and ultimately what our rotation’s going to look like, but I think this would be a year where the rotation is pretty fluid.”

There are some definite pieces for Ohio State already in place.

E.J. Liddell, a returning coaches first-team All-Big Ten forward, showed what he could do as the clock on the Buckeyes’ scrimmage winded down Thursday morning.

The junior forward took the ball from freshman guard Malaki Branham, switching from Justice Sueing to Eugene Brown III as his primary defender. Liddell found his place in the corner and shot a 3, giving him, Branham, center Joey Brunk, guard Cedric Russell and guard Jamari Wheeler the five-point scrimmage win.

This is an offense that stepped up in a major way last season. The Buckeyes finished the season averaging 77.2 points per game — third best in the Big Ten behind Iowa and Illinois — scoring 2,392 points through 31 games, ninth-most in the country.

Last season, Holtmann credited the offensive success to the combination of Liddell and Kyle Young in the post, being so hard to stop. Now, with more traditional bigs in the post like Brunk and Zed Key, the head coach feels that the high-octane offense from a year ago may not be in the cards.

“It would be great. I would love it,” Holtmann said. “I’ll take it right now, but I think that might be difficult to achieve just because we’ll play in maybe more of a traditional, which we hope will bring a little bit more of a balance.”

The head coach preached a higher focus on defensive efficiency, allowing opponents to shoot 42.1% from the field a year ago — seventh-best in the Big Ten.

To help, Holtmann brought in Wheeler, a redshirt freshman guard who transferred from Penn State after being named to the Big Ten All-Defense team for the past two years, something freshman Meechie Johnson saw first-hand against the Nittany Lions last year and head-to-head in Thursday’s scrimmage.

“That’s who Jamari is. He’s going to be fun to watch on that end,” Holtmann said. “He’s going to have to continue to get better offensively, but he’s really going to help those guys protect the ball better.”

With the way the roster is constructed, Holtmann said he expects Ohio State to be a bit better defensively, pairing that with a good offense with the goal of being top-25 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.

But Holtmann’s still trying to figure out where that offense will come from in the backcourt.

He said to expect Sueing to step up as a “primary playmaker,” leading the offense with the ball in his hands more as a potential point guard. But outside of that, the head coach isn’t sure.

“I’m not sure right now I would say, ‘Yep, this guy, we could say could go get 32 in a Big Ten semifinal game,’” Holtmann said, referencing Washington’s performance against Michigan a season ago. “I think that’s still evolving. I think we have some answers there. But I think it could be more of a collective, a couple guys.”

As practices continue, Holtmann still has time to complete his checklist: his installation, his conditioning plan. But simply, the head coach feels his players just need to play together to see what he is working with.

“We need to play so that we can learn about our team as much as possible,” Holtmann said.

Both redshirt senior forward Kyle Young and senior forward Justin Ahrens did not participate in Ohio State's scrimmage Thursday.

Ahrens was seen on the sideline, while Young left the practice facility early. Both, Holtmann said, were "a little banged up," but, after four-straight days of practice, both were kept off the court during contact drills. The head coach said both instances are minor.

Holtmann also said that the Ohio State men's basketball program is "100% vaccinated" for COVID-19.

"We’ve certainly had the whole gamut of some guys being maybe concerned or more questions and then other guys being open to it, but we’re 100% vaccinated," he said.