COLUMBUS, Ohio — As Ohio State looks ahead to the official start of its 2021-22 season with an exhibition against Indianapolis Monday, Chris Holtmann said the Buckeyes would likely be without one of its captains.

The head coach announced Friday redshirt senior forward Kyle Young was diagnosed with a vestibular dysfunction, defined as a disturbance of the body’s balance system, about a week-and-a-half ago.

Holtmann said he doesn’t see it as a long-term injury, but he also doesn’t have a timeline for his return.

“Kyle had a really good summer,” Holtmann said. “I thought he played some of the best that I’d seen him this summer. It might have bothered him, but he didn’t really notice it bothering him significantly until here in the fall.

In Young’s place, Holtmann said junior forward E.J. Liddell will log up a significant amount of his minutes, also utilizing players like Eugene Brown III, Justin Ahrens and Justice Sueing.

However, in Ohio State’s closed scrimmage against Ole Miss Sunday, Holtmann said the Buckeyes “struggled,” seeing a chance to use different rotations in Young’s absence and see how each performed.

Along with Young’s absence, redshirt senior Seth Towns continues to work his way back from offseason back surgery, but Holtmann said that the forward returned to conditioning activity Friday, anticipating he’s on track. The head coach said it’s too early to tell when Towns would be able to return, but reiterated mid-to-late December as a potential starting point.

As for Young, Holtmann said his spirits are high despite another injury in his five seasons with the Buckeyes.

“He’s had about everything that could come a kid’s way in five years here,” Holtmann said. “He’s in good spirits now that it’s been diagnosed and he’s showing improvement. It was very hard for him when he was wondering, and he was still able to do some things, but they shut him down once they realized it was it.

“Now that he’s on some meds and showing improvement, he’s in really good spirits.”

Looking ahead to the exhibition game against Indianapolis, both Sueing and Ahrens felt one specific player has stood out prominently, whether it’s in practice or in the Buckeyes’ closed scrimmage against Ole Miss: Jamari Wheeler.

A back-to-back member of the Big Ten’s All-Defensive team when he was at Penn State, the redshirt senior guard, Sueing said, brings an intensity to the court, raising the bar for everybody.

To Holtmann, Wheeler brings a presence you can “feel” on both ends of the floor, feeling he’s been the most consistent player for the Buckeyes on the perimeter during the preseason.

To Ahrens, Wheeler brings an ability to change the tempo of the game.

“He’s the type of player we’re looking for,” Ahrens said.

But before he left, Ahrens made sure to reference one more player he was excited to see.

“I’m excited to see Malaki (Branham) too,” Ahrens said. “True freshman, obviously has a lot of learning to do, but he’s got a lot of raw talent. He’s gifted on the offensive end of the floor.”

The former four-star small forward-turned-guard has turned some heads within the Ohio State program through the preseason. At 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, Malaki Branham, Holtmann said, has shot the ball particularly well, continuing to improve both on his ball handling and his defense on the perimeter.

“Malaki, we’ve coached him pretty hard here in this preseason,” Holtmann said. “He’s shown some real glimpses and flashes of really being able to impact the game on both ends.”

In what he describes as what’s going to be a “fluid” starting lineup and a “fluid” rotation, Holtmann knows that Branham, along with freshman guard Meechie Johnson Jr., is going to have to make an impact.

But he also knows there will be growing pains involved, something he saw in the scrimmage against Ole Miss Sunday .

“We saw a couple of guys get swallowed up, we saw them, a couple times, the physicality get into the pace of the game. But normal stuff they will adjust to,” Holtmann said. “They’ve really had a good approach and they have answered the bell on a couple of occasions and also have had some good moments.

“I think both guys really have a chance to grow right in front of our eyes and maybe be different in January than they were in December, if they have the right approach.”

Ohio State will take on Indianapolis at home in a preseason exhibition 7 p.m. Monday.