Ohio State's Chris Holtmann talks Sueing, Key, more as Big Ten Tournament looms
The regular season is over, and from this point on Ohio State has reached win-or-go-home territory.
Saturday afternoon at Michigan State, the Buckeyes became the 11th straight team to watch the Spartans earn a victory on senior day. Freshmen Brice Sensabaugh (21 points) and Bruce Thornton (20) combined to score 41 points, but Ohio State ended the 2022-23 regular season with a 13-18 overall record and a 5-15 mark in the Big Ten. Of those five wins, two came in the final three games of the season to end what had been a nine-game losing streak for the Buckeyes.
Now it’s onto the conference tournament, where No. 13 seed Ohio State will play No. 12 seed Wisconsin on Wednesday in the opening game. Should the Buckeyes advance, they will face No. 5 seed Iowa on Thursday afternoon at the United Center in Chicago.
With the likely end of the season looming by the end of the week, coach Chris Holtmann held his weekly radio show Monday afternoon. In case you couldn’t listen, here are the highlights.
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Justice Sueing playing ‘his best basketball’ recently
Ohio State sixth-year forward Justice Sueing nearly posted a triple-double in the loss at Michigan State, finishing with 10 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. It continued a recent run of strong play in the final weeks for Sueing.
“He’s done a great job rebounding the ball,” Holtmann said. “He’s really played well. Justice has played his best basketball the last couple weeks in terms of his complete game. Just a really, really good performance on his part. I love how he’s playing. Love where his mind’s at right now. He’s been instrumental in our play after the Purdue game.
“I don’t think he played great in the Purdue game, but after that he’s played well. I think he’s really played to his strengths. I’m sure he would tell you he hasn’t shot it as well as he’d like to, but all the things that make him a good player in terms of rebounding, assists and being able to defend. He’s got a really tough matchup on Wednesday night on Tyler Wahl. He’s just been good at defending some of those bigger-body forwards.”
Zed Key’s surgery deemed a success
Third-year center Zed Key underwent season-ending shoulder surgery last Thursday, and he’s facing a recovery of potentially six months.
“He’ll have, it’s about a 5-6 month total return to contact and action and all that,” Holtmann said. “The good thing is there’s a lot of time between now and when he needs to get ready for next season. He’ll be able to do some conditioning. We’ve already had conversations about setting up a plan. It’s the contact and hitting and scrimmaging that we do in the summer, all of that would need to wait until that timeline. He’ll have plenty of time to get ready for a full season next year.”
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What that means about things like building strength, trimming weight and working on conditioning will be worked out in the coming weeks.
“The reality is he needs to get in the best shape of his life,” Holtmann said. “He needs to get slimmer. Between the injury, the hindrance of the brace on his fitness and conditioning I thought it really showed in his motor and effort in this stretch of play and really limited his effectiveness. He’s got to get in great shape and get that shoulder healthy, which he’s in the process of doing that.”
Would Ohio State accept an invitation to a postseason tournament?
It is unlikely that the Buckeyes would generate enough wins in the Big Ten Tournament to get to .500 and NIT consideration, but Holtmann said they haven’t talked about playing in a tournament aside from the NCAA Tournament.
“We would address that if we were in that position,” he said. “That’s a conversation for another time. Our goal every year, we understand what that is. We look at it if that opportunity would come out. Our focus is on playing well Wednesday night and seeing where that takes us. Beyond that, the rest of it will take care of itself.”
Chris Holtmann ejected in first Wisconsin game
Ohio State lost the lone meeting between the teams this season in a game that Holtmann watched the second half from the locker room after being assessed two technical fouls after one play during the first half.
“That was a forgettable moment there, for sure,” Holtmann said. “Wisconsin’s ability to really post the ball in game one allowed them to get the lead. They made some 3s early, but their ability to post the ball. They have a really good interior post player and that’ll be a huge matchup for Felix (Okpara) and all our guys in there because he’s big and he’s got great touch. They’re really intentional about getting the ball to him in the post.
“He and Tyler Wahl, they’ve got one of the best point guards in the league too. Chucky Hepburn’s a really good point guard who gets the ball where he needs to. He can score it at three levels.”
Against Michigan State, Okpara showed some of the touch that he’s still developing on the offensive end.
“His jump hook over his left shoulder the other day was extremely impressive, because obviously no one is blocking that or impacting it in any way,” Holtmann said. “He’s different than anything we’ve had in terms of his shot blocking, which is already significant as a freshman. The Maryland game, you could argue he controlled the game in the paint with his athleticism. I don’t know that any of us expected him to necessarily play the role he’s playing right now.”
Buckeyes, Spartans battle on court, in recruiting
Ohio State’s coaches and players wore black shirts reading “SPARTAN STRONG” at Michigan State on Saturday.
“More than anything it’s solidarity between the coaches, the players in the Big Ten when a university is going through something as difficult as what that school has went through in the last month,” Holtmann said. “That’s it as much as anything. You wanted them to know you’re there with them and you’re competing as hard as you can and trying to beat them, but there are bigger things.”
Holtmann said he’s built a relationship with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo that’s grown stronger in recent years and pointed out that the two have recruited against each other especially recently.
“We had some really significant recruiting battles this past offseason, a couple we won and one he won,” Holtmann said. “They offered Austin Parks and also offered and recruited hard Devin (Royal), so both guys were very much priorities for them, as did schools like Indiana and a bunch of schools. Austin’s this Big Ten physical body that looks like a Big Ten center at 6-11, 270, and obviously Devin’s got that multi-dimensional piece of versatility you need.”
Ohio State gets hot from the free-throw line
In the win against Maryland last week, the Buckeyes were perfect on 20 free-throw attempts. At Michigan State on Saturday, they hit their first nine and finished 11 for 12 from the line.
It’s one part of the overall improved body of work Ohio State has displayed in the final weeks of the season.
“Nothing different,” Holtmann said when asked about the approach at the line. “Some of it is you’re trying to get your better free-throw shooters there. The biggest thing we’ve seen here in this closing stretch of play is better offensive efficiency in general. We’ve shot it better because our shot quality has gotten better. We’ve turned it over less because we’ve played with more purpose offensively and we’ve moved it and shared it. We played a beautiful game offensively outside of a couple plays early. We’ve got to keep hammering those things.
“We’ve defensive rebounded it a little better in this stretch of good play. Our numbers have improved a little bit. Our details have improved. Our offensive efficiency has dramatically improved, and a by-product of that is we’re moving the ball well.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State's Chris Holtmann talks Key, Sueing and more on radio
