Ohio State basketball to get started with Brice Sensabaugh, multiple new faces
The hallway outside of the Imperial Ballroom inside the Atlantis resort was a bustle of activity. Team managers packed up gear, Puerto Rico’s national team filtered through the area and the Ohio State men’s basketball team began the process of preparing to return to the United States.
Amid this cacophony, Brice Sensabaugh leaned against the wall and smiled. In the early-August win against the Puerto Ricans, the freshman had led the Buckeyes with 20 points, giving him a team-high 35 in the two games played during this exhibition trip.
Sensabaugh said he wasn’t aware of this fact until it was presented to him and that it wouldn’t necessarily be his role to do that when the regular season got underway.
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“I was just trying my best to play the right way and contribute to what the coaches had laid out for us,” he said then. “Just playing as hard as possible and trying my best to do the right things and grow off of last possessions and last plays.”
Now, Sensabaugh will get his first chance to show what that looks like. Monday night, the freshman forward will be one of as many as nine Buckeyes who could make their Ohio State debuts against Robert Morris, more than double last year’s opening-game total of four.
Coach Chris Holtmann has utilized the phrase “normalizing struggle” to help guide so many newcomers who will be counted on to contribute at a high level through the ups and downs of a season.
“Obviously there’s a realization that comes with it, but us group of freshmen, we work really hard to minimize those mistakes and when they do happen just go onto the next play or possession,” Sensabaugh said before Friday’s practice. “The group that we have of young guys are super mature and we’re all good listeners and we all take mistakes as lessons and losses as lessons. I think this group is going to be able to grow really fast.”
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The Buckeyes will need that. No Ohio State team has had more than five players make their program debuts in the opener during the last 10 years. Holtmann said he’s spent the offseason preaching to his players the significance of putting on an Ohio State jersey. It’s an ongoing education that was hammered home during the summer as the Buckeyes hosted their annual “Vet Week” that saw dozens of alumni return to practice, lift and eat with the current team. More recently, Sensabaugh said alumnus Clark Kellogg spoke to the team on the topic.
“Now that they’re here, you’re trying to help young people understand they’re playing for something bigger, a larger purpose,” Holtmann said. “As you move into the season as a team, that has been the focus. All of that is part of the education for a new group and a new team.”
Sensabaugh and the Buckeyes got a taste of that last Tuesday with their exhibition game against Division II foe Chaminade. Ohio State would lead by as many as 47 points in a 101-57 win, but Sensabaugh said he personally rushed things and described the game as “a surreal experience.” He started the game and finished with 8 points on only 3-of-11 shooting but pulled down nine rebounds.
What lessons did he learn from the experience?
“Just keep embracing what the coach has for me and keep listening and playing hard and really just feel the game out,” he said. “Don’t rush too much stuff. In the exhibition, I kind of rushed a little bit. Trying to get a feel for the game, but just continue to play hard and if it’s not my scoring night finding other ways to contribute and feel it out.”
It's not just about the freshmen, either. Three years ago, Sean McNeil was a first-year player at West Virginia after having spent a season playing for Sinclair Community College in Dayton when the Mountaineers opened the 2019-20 season against Akron in front of 12,513 fans inside WVU Coliseum.
Monday will be his last first game of a college season.
“I know I was nervous (against Akron), but it was fun playing in an arena that seats (14,000) people,” he said. “You just try to soak it all in. this is the dream if you’re a young kid. You want to play in the big arenas with the bright lights. This is my last year so I’m just trying to soak it all up.”
That was also briefly the case the last time these two programs met. When Ohio State hosted Robert Morris to open the 2017-18 season, it marked the first game of the Holtmann era. The Buckeyes won that game, 95-64, behind 19 points and 11 rebounds from eventual Big Ten player of the year Keita Bates-Diop, 16 points from Kam Williams and 13 points and seven rebounds from Kaleb Wesson. Holtmann has a ball from that game enshrined in his office.
This time, the Buckeyes and Colonials will be kicking off a new phase of the Holtmann era instead.
“I know I was really excited and continue to be,” he said. “That’s the beauty of a new season and a new opportunity. It comes with a lot of excitement and some nerves and that’s true for coaches and players.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State basketball ready to show off Brice Sensabaugh, new faces
