It is officially April and the College Basketball season has ended. In the same vein that The Floor Slap did season previews and in season spotlights for every team in the Big Ten, now it’s time to look back on everyone’s season and reflect. Going from the Bottom to the Top in the standings, we will be releasing Exit Survey’s for all 14 teams in the conference. Today, we have the 13th place Ohio State Buckeyes.
Alright, same format as the Minnesota exit survey. Start with preseason expectations, go into midseason performance, and end with what their post-season looks like and how fans should feel.
Preseason
In my season preview for Ohio State, I wrote about how Chris Holtmann is a model for team building in modern basketball.
I described Holtmann as a Mercenary Basketball coach who doesn’t care if he loses his developing Freshmen or Sophomore players, because he will just grab ready made players from the portal.
The tagline of the article being, “Holtmann doesn’t rebuild, he reloads.”
Well, turns out some seasons Holtmann rebuilds.
The thesis of the article was questioning how successful Holtmann’s team building strategy can be.
The Buckeyes had three straight top 5 finishes in the Big Ten and made the Tournament every year (when there was one) with Holtmann, but also hadn’t advanced to a Sweet Sixteen, won a Conference Title, and had 10+ losses for 4 straight seasons.
Is this strategy of grabbing 3+ transfers each offseason and putting talented but inexperienced freshmen in a sink or swim scenario viable for success in March? Can you win in March reloading every year instead of building chemistry over the course of several years?
Those were the questions I was asking about Ohio State and Holtmann. Ohio State was young going into this season, but making the Tournament was still the expectation.
Ohio State entered the season with a touted freshmen class that I loved. Two wings in Roddy Gayle, and Brice Sensabaugh, a true point guard and bulldog in Bruce Thornton, and a shot blocking center in Felix Okpara.
They lost pieces in Malaki Branham and EJ Liddell, but that was the point. Holtmann reloads, remember?
He reloaded with those four freshmen and also three transfers in Isaac Likele, Tanner Holden, and Sean McNeil. Those pieces were being added around key returnees like Justice Sueing and Zed Key.
Certainly enough to expect to be a tournament team, but that was not the case.
The Season
Ohio State started the season decently well. Ohio State had a solid schedule (it seemed tougher at the time) in non-conference.
They lost to San Diego State in the first Maui Invitational game. Then beat Cincinnati and Texas Tech the next two days. They lost the ACC/Big Ten challenge game to Duke, and lost the CBS classic game to UNC.
Again, all of this was more impressive at the time.
They even had a buzzer beater win in their first conference game of the season, when Tanner Holden hit almost a half court three as time expired to beat Rutgers.
Was he out of bounds? Maybe. Will this be the only moment people remember from Holden’s one year at Ohio State? Yes, but at least he had a moment.
The season turned when Ohio State lost on a last second three from Fletcher Loyer in a home loss to Purdue. Ohio State was actually ranked at the time and was slightly favored against the Boilermakers. Zed Key got hurt early in this game and missed several more games because of it.
The loss kicked off a 5 game losing streak, the worst being a home loss to Minnesota. Easily the worst loss of the season for any team in the conference.
But the Buckeyes didn’t stop there. Starting with the Purdue game, Ohio State entered a complete nose dive losing 14 of their next 15 games.
The season was lost.
Holtmann rallied the Buckeyes a little bit towards the end of the season with wins over Maryland and Illinois. They even went on a three game win streak in the Big Ten Tournament before eventually losing again to Purdue to end the season.
There were some positives.
Brice Sensabaugh is likely to continue Holtmann’s NBA legacy as an expected 1st round pick. Great for recruiting.
Bruce Thornton started to look really comfortable as the season went on. His growing confidence gives great optimism for fans going into next year.
Okpara had flashes all season of his potential, and Roddy Gayle had an amazing Big Ten tournament to inspire more confidence in this ’22 class going forward.
There were also many negatives.
None of the transfers fully fit in.
Holden was in the doghouse pretty quickly. Sean McNeil was a one trick pony and never fully utilized. Isaac Likele was great in some areas, but provided nothing on offense.
Zed Key never made the leap he should have.
Sueing’s inconsistency hurt this team often.
The offense overall became very predictable, and the defense never was good enough to justify the predictability.
Ohio State was just a below average team all around.
Maybe, the Buckeyes were a bit unlucky as 7 of their 15 Big Ten losses were by 6 points or less. Maybe, a team constructed each offseason, instead of building chemistry year after year, is bound to lose more close games.
Post Season
I already mentioned that Ohio State went on a run in the Big Ten tournament. The Buckeyes beat Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan State before they lost to eventual champion Purdue in the semifinals.
Technically, Ohio State won 5 of their last 7 Big Ten games. Still, OSU was nowhere near a post-season invite.
Ohio State has had a tame off-season so far.
Brice Sensabaugh declared, but kept his college eligibility for now.
Eugene Brown entered the portal, but he likely wasn’t going to get any minutes next season anyways.
Guys who struggled to get in the rotation (Kalen Etzler, Bowen Hardman, etc.) have stood pat for now.
It seems like the core of Bruce Thornton, Roddy Gayle, Felix Okpara, and Zed Key are all staying.
The positive spin for OSU all season has been looking ahead to next year’s class.
Holtmann has his best freshman class yet coming in. Taison Chatman, Scotty Middleton, Devin Royal, and Austin Parks round out a top 10 class in the country and arguably the best in the Big Ten.
More positive news came last week with Minnesota forward Jamison Battle transferring to the Buckeyes.
There might be one or two more transfers on the way too.
It is easy to spin zone yourself into being excited for next year’s Buckeyes.
Bruce Thornton at point, Okpara or Key at center, and a combo of Gayle, Chatman, Middleton, Battle, and Royal next to them is an exciting lineup.
However, the central question will still linger for Holtmann and Ohio State.
Can this type of team building work in March?
Certainly, the Buckeyes should make March Madness next season.
How high of a seed will they have with this much youth? Will keeping most of the freshman class together make a big difference? Will we see more player development than recent years under Holtmann?
Many fans wanted Holtmann to be fired this season. Their win streak at the end of the year helped alleviate some of the pressure on him. This recruiting class always was a feather in his cap to keep him, too. It was never really in doubt he would be back next season. No matter how many twitter accounts made you think otherwise.
However, if Ohio State flops again next year, then some of these questions about Holtmann will be raised more seriously. Holtmann making a Sweet Sixteen next season could also answer those questions.
Ohio State fans should be disappointed with this season.
Ohio State fans should still be excited for next season.