What's one thing each Ohio State rotation player can do to turn season around?
Just like there’s no one thing holding back this year’s Ohio State men’s basketball team, there’s not just one player whose play is sinking the Buckeyes.
Thursday’s home game with Wisconsin marks the midway mark of Big Ten play, and Ohio State will enter the arena with work to do. The Buckeyes are on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble thanks to an 11-10 record and 3-7 mark in conference games. Ohio State lost five straight, beat Iowa and then lost consecutive road games to Illinois and Indiana to come skidding back to Value City Arena in need of a significant second-half turnaround.
It’s not just the players who are searching for answers. Now in his ninth season as a high-major Division I coach and his sixth at Ohio State, Chris Holtmann is experiencing his most prolonged losing stretch and facing the real possibility of missing out on March Madness for the first time.
Monday, Holtmann said he’s not ready to perform an autopsy on a season with 11 guaranteed games remaining and said he’s trying to put his focus into his players rather than himself.
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“When you go through something difficult, you have a couple different choices,” Holtmann said. “One is to look inward and to think about yourself and the reality is there’s a lot of people that are impacted. That’s my responsibility right now is our staff and our players and making sure they’re thinking the right way and that they are being encouraged in the right way and yet challenged and held accountable in the right way.
“When you’re in any type of leadership position and you go through something as challenging as what we’re going through, the answer is to not look more inward, it’s to find ways to give more and think of others. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m not sure I’m great at it, but that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Here’s one thing each player in the primary playing rotation can do to help turn things around. Players are listed in alphabetical order.
Gene Brown – Find a role
After missing the first 11 games with a concussion and subsequent return-to-play protocols, Brown has faced an uphill battle for playing time all season. Including him as a rotation player is almost a stretch, given that he’s played more than 10 minutes in only two of the last 10 games and was a healthy, unused substitute in one of them, but Brown has flashed the ability to impact a game with his rebounding and growing offensive game.
His consistency has matched his inconsistent playing time, however. Statistical impacts are hard to come by with an average of 8.0 minutes per appearance, but if Brown can use his length to help strengthen Ohio State’s defense when he’s on the court and continue to hunt his shot when given the opportunity, it would provide a boost for the Buckeyes.
Roddy Gayle Jr. – Look to score more
Holtmann has consistently said that Gayle would take a step forward as a player late this season and will be poised for a breakout sophomore year, but increased playing time of late has allowed him to flash more of his all-around game. Already an active and willing defender, Gayle entered the Jan. 21 game against Iowa averaging 3.6 points in 13.5 minutes per game but has averaged 6.3 and 18.0, respectively, in Ohio State’s last three games.
It’s not a dramatic uptick, but as the offense searches for answers Gayle has shown an increased ability to make his presence felt on the offensive end. While the Buckeyes need some players to cut down on certain things in order for the team to get better, they need Gayle to continue to develop and give them more. His growing offensive confidence could help provide a spark for a team looking for answers, provided he doesn’t try to do too much.
Tanner Holden – Fight back into the rotation
This is one of the more difficult ones to figure out. An up-transfer from Wright State, Holden was identified as a player who would take time to adapt to the high-major level but was expected to take on a more significant role as the season progressed. Instead, his playing time has dried up, and after the Indiana loss Holtmann said he has to trim the rotation at this point in the season when asked by Holden only played for the final 5:17 of the most lopsided loss of the season.
It was the second straight game in which Holden saw fewer than seven minutes of playing time and the second straight game in which he set a season-low for playing time. Prior to that, he’d nabbed five steals in his previous two games and had scored in 17 of the first 19 games this season. Now scoreless in two straight and apparently on the outside looking in, Holden’s biggest task is to find a way to reclaim some kind of role.
Zed Key – Get back to early-season efficiency
In his first season as a featured part of the offense, third-year center Zed Key had improved on his career 58.2% shooting mark and was connecting at a team-best 62.9% (66 for 105) from the floor entering a Jan. 5 showdown with No. 1 Purdue. He left the game with a left shoulder strain less than four minutes in, and his touch around the rim hasn’t been the same since. After missing the next game, Key is shooting 49.0% (25 for 51) as his scoring average has dropped from 13.4 to 11.9.
Key is at the forefront of Ohio State’s need to be better on the glass as well as its desire to play better team defense, but it’s indisputable that his decreased shooting percentage has had a ripple effect on the Ohio State offense. The Buckeyes haven’t been able to throw the ball into the post and consistently get buckets like they could in the opening weeks of the season, and as ball movement has dried up and points have been at a premium Key’s struggles have been more pronounced. It’s clear the shoulder brace is affecting him, but if he can get back to his early-season numbers the Ohio State offense could take a step forward.
Isaac Likekele – Play with more pace
When the Buckeyes shook off their five-game losing streak with a win against Iowa, Likekele drew plenty of the praise for his near triple-double stat line: 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. All were season-high totals, which highlighted the fact that expecting such production from the Oklahoma State graduate transfer on a nightly basis was unreasonable. It was the way Likekele generated those numbers that seems replicable and would do Ohio State a lot of good.
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In that game, Likekele was able to play with pace, generate plenty of offense and also provide a physical defensive presence. Those are all skills Likekele can bring on a nightly basis that don’t show up in the stat sheet and that will go a long way toward helping Ohio State put together a more successful second half to Big Ten play.
Sean McNeil – Keep moving the ball
He was brought to Ohio State to score, and the West Virginia transfer has been one of Ohio State’s most reliable at doing so. McNeil has scored between 7-15 points in Ohio State’s past 16 games, never as the leading scorer but as a player who is always able to contribute something to the offensive effort. It might not sound like much, but with offense growing harder to come by as league play continues, McNeil’s been a reliable option to knock down a 3-pointer or two and create an occasional jumper off the dribble.
While his defensive abilities could improve (EvanMiya.com lists him as Ohio State’s lowest-rated defensive player), McNeil’s assist rate is down from 8.8% last season to 7.9 this season according to KenPom. A few extra passes and extra ball movement might result in one or two fewer shots but could help provide a boost for the Ohio State offense. McNeil said his transfer from West Virginia was in part due to his desire to highlight some of the playmaking aspects of his game. Making a few more plays for his teammates while remaining a dangerous 3-point shooting presence would help bring that out.
Felix Okpara – Cut down on the fouls
It’s not hard to see the potential in the 6-11, 220-pound Okpara. A raw but springy freshman center, Okpara has shown growth and signs of future greatness through the first 21 games of his freshman season. Most of that has come on the defensive end, where he has blocked a team-high 25 shots despite standing ninth in minutes played (272:27). Against Indiana, Holtmann praised Okpara as having been their best defender on Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis in a game where he also scored 8 points in 15 minutes.
As Key’s backup, Okpara’s minutes figure to be limited for the remainder of the season. It would help his chances, however, if he grew into a less foul-prone player. Okpara averages 4.7 fouls committed per 40 minutes, the highest rate on the Ohio State roster. He’s been better of late, committing just one foul against Indiana and none in the prior game against Illinois, but if he’s able to continue to grow defensively while avoiding sending opponents to the line – and himself to the bench – it gives Holtmann another piece to build around.
Brice Sensabaugh – Share the wealth
Ohio State has had freshmen lead the team in scoring before, but never quite like Sensabaugh is currently doing it. The 6-6, 235-pound forward has been Ohio State’s leading scorer for the last 12 games, the longest streak in program history. He’s averaging 17.6 points while shooting 47.4% from 3 (45 for 95), 52.7% from two (89 for 169) and 80.3% from the line (57 for 71). According to BartTorvik.com, Sensabaugh is shooting a team-best 49.1% on “far twos” – shots that aren’t listed as dunks, layups or tip-ins.
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Like McNeil, Sensabaugh’s defense hasn’t been what’s kept him on the court and that’s not likely to change. But the freshman has dished out a total of 22 assists this season, seven of which came in a blowout win against Maine on Dec. 21. Teams are keying on Sensabaugh and devoting plenty of attention to stopping him, so while he’s grown into a more efficient scorer as the season has progressed it would help the flow of the offense if he turned a few possessions of isolation dribbles into a few more passes to teammates to force defensive rotations and open up more scoring opportunities.
Justice Sueing – Snap out of it
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Sueing, a sixth-year forward and team captain, has seen a marked drop in every significant statistical category as the season has progressed. A 48.5% shooter during his lone healthy season for the Buckeyes two years ago, Sueing is down to 44.2% overall and a career-low 25.0% from 3. He’s averaging a career-low 4.5 rebounds per game and leads the team with 41 turnovers and has gone in and out of the starting lineup during the last two weeks.
None of these numbers reflect the player Sueing had demonstrated himself to be during his three healthy seasons, the first two of which were at the University of California. His drives to the basket often result in being cut off near the paint and difficulty in getting off an uncontested shot, his outside jumper isn’t falling and he’s typically finishing with one or two more turnovers per game than you’d expect from a veteran captain. If Sueing can cut loose and play with the same blend of physicality and intensity that set him up for a special final season, his ability to impact multiple facets of the game would allow much of the rest of the roster to thrive.
Bruce Thornton – Get to the rim, or take the 3
The Buckeyes have put a lot on the shoulders of their freshman point guard. A starter from day one, Thornton looked to be settling in as a two-way contributor and was averaging 10.4 points and 3.5 rebounds in 29.4 minutes per game entering the Purdue game before a combination of the freshman wall and an injury to his right, shooting wrist slowed him. It’s no coincidence that Ohio State’s offensive struggles have coincided with Thornton averaging 1.6 assists and shooting 27.8% (15 for 54) from the floor.
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His wrist injury affected his 3-point shooting, but Thornton’s offensive game has suffered from some of the same issues that have plagued the rest of the roster: an overreliance on tough, two-point shots. According to BartTorvik.com, Thornton is 16 for 22 (72.7%) on close twos, 23 for 58 (39.7%) from 3-point range but only 24 for 73 (32.9%) in between. That latter number is the lowest shooting percentage for any Buckeye with more than 25 such attempts.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State basketball can still turn season around. Here's how
