The two minutes Seth Towns spent on the court last Saturday for Ohio State were a massive step forward.

It was the graduate transfer’s first live action since March 11, 2018, when he scored 13 points for Harvard in a loss to Penn.

Towns’ path has been mentally and physically draining, and though his brief cameo against UCLA was inspiring in terms of things to come, those things are still a long way away.

“I think people have hopefully understood that by now that the young man has worked really hard to get back to this point, but it’s not a situation where he’s necessarily ready to play significant Big Ten minutes,” Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said. “That might be a while.”

His full return begins with the physical side. After lingering knee-cartilage injuries kept Towns out for his final two undergraduate seasons at Harvard, he underwent a final surgery earlier this year to repair a “cartilage defect.”

The original prognosis was that Towns would be able to return to live action by mid-summer 2020. There were a few setbacks, and the goal eventually became going through a full practice during the preseason.

Now that the Columbus native has practiced consistently with the Buckeyes, one final step forward exists: getting in game shape.

“I think it’ll be more of ‘Let’s see how he feels from game to game,’” Holtmann said. “He’s not ready to play a significant amount of minutes. He’s not. He’s not physically quite ready for that; he’s not in the shape to do that.”

After multiple years without knowing when (or if) his knee would allow him to return to the court, not being in Big Ten shape is a much-improved problem for Towns to have.

It means he’s progressing. It means there are tangible goals for him to achieve in order to get back to basketball consistently, rather than waiting on the progress of his knee.

The path is laid out for Towns, even though there is still no clear date marking his full availability.

“Who knows when that’ll be? I’m not gonna put a timeline on it,” Holtmann said. “It’s not right now. He’s just gotta continue to put in good work day after day.”

Then comes the issue of making mental adjustments.

Keep in mind, there was no redshirt year for Towns. He committed to Ohio State in March and has had very limited time to learn an entirely new system.

Towns is at a new program playing for a different coach with different expectations. He’s competing against better teams than he ever saw at Harvard.

While Justice Sueing and C.J. Walker each had a full year to practice and adjust to Big Ten basketball after transferring in, Towns is essentially entering conference play blind.

“He’s a great kid, to begin with. Seth is a great young man,” Holtmann said. “I think that’s a transition for anyone who goes from one program to the next-- understanding the attention to detail and the practice habits required here.”

Coming back from an agonizingly long injury rehab is one thing. Learning an entirely new system at the same time adds a much greater set of expectations.

However, if anyone can make this situation work, it’s the man who graduated from Harvard earlier this year.

“He’s really smart, as you could imagine,” Holtmann said. “Consistent attention to detail and practice habits are gonna be really important.”

For both Seth Towns and everyone waiting to see his full-time return, patience is key.

But those two minutes against UCLA were undoubtedly a good sign.