By Aidan Joly
When Ohio State beat Kentucky during non-conference season last year, John Calipari declared the Buckeyes as “a top, 1, 2, 3 team” in the country. 11-1 at the time, we had a right to think so. They had blowout wins over Villanova, North Carolina (before the implosion) and Penn State, plus another win against Cincinnati.
But then, the Buckeyes lost four in a row and six of eight to start 2-6 in Big Ten play. However, it did even out as OSU finished 21-10 and would have gotten an easy tournament nod. This year, Chris Holtmann’s squad will look to be more consistently good.
Though Ohio State loses two great players in Kaleb Wesson and Luther Muhammad and another solid role guy in DJ Carton, they will still be very solid.
Starting in the backcourt, CJ Watson is a great all-around player, having averaged 8.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists this past year, having gotten a larger role after Carton took a leave of absence and later transferred. On the other side, shooting guard Duane Washington is one of the top sharpshooters in the league, a 39.3% three-point percentage en route to averaging 11.5 points per game. He is a multi-level shooter who brings a lot of value to the team.
Off the bench comes the big name in Seth Towns. He enters the Ohio State program as a grad transfer from Harvard. He has had multiple injuries that has not allowed him to play since the 2017-18 season, but he was on as a sophomore, averaging 16.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, winning the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2018. If he is healthy, he can be a very good player for the Buckeyes, with the ability to play both as a guard and a forward. As for the other transfer, former Bucknell guard Jimmy Sotos recently received a waiver from the NCAA and is eligible this year, considering Abel Porter will not be available this year. He averaged 11.5 PPG to go along with a three-point percentage of 37.1% last year. Lastly, freshman Eugene Brown III will add depth on the bench and defensive specialist Musa Jallow will help in a smaller role.
The frontcourt is missing Wesson and his paint-clogging abilities. As for replacing him, the main piece is Justice Sueing, who transferred in from California. The question with him is the health as well, since he underwent foot surgery, so sat out entirely instead of practicing with the team. If he is good to go can play multiple positions but will see the most time at small forward, where he averaged 14.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game two seasons ago. Kyle Young and EJ Liddell will be the other two starters, with both having an ability to be positive contributors on both ends of the floor. Young in particular is an extremely physical player and great rebounder, and a glue guy for them. The Buckeyes’ January slump directly coincided with Young missing time due to an ankle injury. Liddell is a great shot blocker, having averaged almost one per game, ninth in the Big Ten in block rate in his freshman season.
There isn’t a ton of frontcourt depth, but it’s there. Freshman Zed Key will add to it as an underrated big man. He fits the team mold as a strong inside scorer. He probably won’t have a huge role immediately, but his minutes will probably depend on how he does at the beginning of the year. Lastly, sophomore Ibrahima Diallo is raw, but he’s the only true center on the roster at 6-10. Because of that, he’ll be given chances to play but if he struggles Holtmann may prefer to utilize other players in this deep group.
The ceiling for this team is high. They have talent inside and out. The Big Ten is very deep. If Towns and Sueing are healthy and they do a little bit of developing overall, this should be a very good team. A second weekend run in the NCAA Tournament feels like it’s a realistic outcome here and one that they should be happy with.
AJ Hoops 