Thirteen thoughts on a reshaped Ohio State hoops roster for 2020-21

Chris Holtmann’s team spent the first part of the day that college basketball came to a standstill inside the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis, business as usual ahead of a Big Ten tournament game against Purdue that seemed highly unlikely to tip off that evening. When reality set in for everyone, that the season was done right then and there, Ohio State felt like a lot of other teams in the country, that it had a March run in it that was now never going to come to fruition. Holtmann met with his group that day to discuss that and other particulars, of which there were little, before they trickled out to whatever corner of the Midwest, or beyond, they were headed.

The next time Holtmann gets with his team in person, whenever that might be, a few of those faces he was staring at inside that hotel conference room will have since moved on to other places, and staring back at him will be a handful of new ones.

Change is increasingly constant in college basketball, and the Buckeyes are not immune to it even in this most unusual of offseasons.

More shuffle has come in the last 48 hours. The program announced Sunday that sophomore guard Luther Muhammad will enter the transfer portal. On Monday, Bucknell guard Jimmy Sotos announced he was transferring to Ohio State. The moves aren’t necessarily related, because Sotos has to sit a year and Muhammad figured next season to have a role similar to what he’s been the last two, a defensive asset who started 56 of 64 games. The Athletic has learned that the motivation for Muhammad’s transfer is to find a place where he’d be featured more, and have more freedom, as an offensive player.

Muhammad is the third player to leave the program this offseason, joining freshmen DJ Carton and Alonzo Gaffney. Kaleb Wesson is again exploring his pro options in the NBA Draft process, while his older brother Andre is riding off into the sunset as a good old-fashioned senior who played out his career at one place. Such defections en masse raise red flags for some fans. For others, this is the norm in college hoops, where 900 players transferred last year and some 600 have already entered the portal this year. If there were a common thread linking the departures of Muhammad, Carton and Gaffney, that would be cause for alarm, but there isn’t. Meanwhile, OSU has added two players, Sotos and Harvard graduate transfer Seth Towns, this offseason. Players aren’t typically eager to willingly enter situations that have even a whiff of toxicity. So this feels more like the normal cost of doing business in college basketball than it does representative of any underlying issues in the program.

Still, Ohio State’s roster is slated to look quite different for the 2020-21 season than we thought it would just a few months ago.

As things stand, all 13 scholarship spots are spoken for next season, though that comes with an asterisk. Here’s a look at the roster, and each guy holding those spots.

Kaleb Wesson
2019-20: Junior — 14.0 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 1.9 apg

We don’t include Wesson as a way of generating suspense. The prevailing thought is that he will indeed follow through with his pursuit of professional opportunities this spring/summer. Yes, he is technically still eligible to return next season as a senior. He has hired an agent for this second journey through the NBA Draft process, but rules that took hold last year allow Wesson to do so while still retaining his college eligibility. Should uncertainty around the draft process push Wesson back to school, Ohio State would welcome his services. No doubt. But the chances of that happening are slim, and the expectation is that next year’s roster will take shape without the second-team All-Big Ten big man.

Debate about Wesson’s viability as an NBA player is fair. Best-case scenario for him could be a two-way deal, with a chance to develop more while getting paid to do so.

After going through this process once last year, Wesson came back with word from the league that he needed to drop weight, improve his mobility while limiting his fouling and shoot the ball at a higher clip from 3-point range. He did all of that, while also seeing a drop in his 2-point field goal percentage. He won’t have a chance to work out for teams in person in the lead-up to this draft. Any impressions of him will be made off whatever was gleaned in his two workouts with Atlanta and Boston last year and, more importantly, his junior-season film. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie has Wesson as the No. 51 overall prospect on his NBA Draft Big Board, among a group of centers hoping to get picked in the second round. Should Wesson stay in the draft, OSU would lose its leader in scoring, rebounding, 3-point shooting and free-throw rate; not to mention the void left in the defense by removing a player of Wesson’s stature from the equation.

Seth Towns
2019-20: Senior — DNP/Injury

Length, shooting, shot creation and experience — Towns brings a lot of what the Buckeyes need next season. He also hasn’t played in two years. The last time he was on the floor, he was the best player in the Ivy League, averaging 16 points and nearly 6 rebounds per game while shooting 44 percent on 3-pointers as a sophomore at Harvard. An ACL injury at the end of that year required multiple surgeries to heal correctly, and because the Ivy League doesn’t allow graduates to play, Towns entered the transfer portal earlier this year.

The Columbus Northland High School product would be a likely candidate for a sixth year of eligibility based on injury should he chose to pursue it. For now he’s on schedule in his recovery to pick up basketball activities again in June and should be a key piece of OSU’s rotation next year. With Wesson leaving and the Buckeyes not adding another center-type of body to replace him, the frontcourt makeup next season will be heavy on forwards. Towns can fit into that as a wing, or as a kind of stretch power forward piece. At 6-foot-7, he’s long enough to defend in those areas while skilled enough on offense to create some mismatches.

Duane Washington
2019-20: Sophomore — 11.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 1.4 apg

Washington’s sophomore season played out in three acts. There was his torrid start in his first nine games, the eight games he played after returning from a rib injury that sidelined him for a bit, and then the close of the season, when he took over the secondary ballhandling duties for the final 11 games once Carton stepped away from the team.

Here’s a statistical look at Washington’s play in those three different stages:

With the roster set up as it is now, his role should most closely resemble that final stage, when Washington functioned as a shooting guard while on the floor with Walker, and as the No. 2 point guard when Walker went to the bench. There's some sentiment that Washington is better suited off the ball. If you're willing to admit that shooting 54 percent from 3-point range isn't sustainable for anyone and that Washington is something closer to what his career deep shooting rate of 35 percent suggests, then you'll find that he wasn't all that far off from that norm while functioning in this role over the close of last season.

He's never going to be an A-plus defender (nor a B or C-level defender, for that matter). What OSU needs from him is engagement on that end, while he continues to grow in his shot selection and decision-making. Washington will never be confused with a pass-first guard, but his playmaking might still be a bit underrated. Ohio State scored 1.3 points per possession out of Washington's ball screen passes last year, a number that will work just fine for a team's secondary ballhandling option. With Muhammad gone and guard options limited right now, there's an opportunity for Washington to really grow into a pivotal piece. That's an intriguing proposition if you're a believer in his stock, and perhaps a worrisome one when you take into account some inconsistencies through two years.

C.J. Walker
2019-20: Junior — 8.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.5 apg

There is no confusion now. This is Walker's show to run as the team's primary point guard. When he settled into that reality last year, he was pretty good, averaging 14 points and 4.3 assists over the final six games of the season. His 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio was the best of his career. What's more promising is that it got better over the course of the season. Those aren't just numbers boosted by playing well against OSU's worst opponents. I've been told he might enter his name for draft consideration, but only to get feedback. There's every expectation that he's the starting point guard next year. Can he continue to grow as a playmaker? And can a guy who shot better than 80 percent at the free-throw line get there more than two times per game as a senior?

(Darren Yamashita / USA Today)

Justice Sueing
2019-20: Junior — DNP/Transfer

Holtmann recently burned through eight games of Sueing's career at Cal in one film session, trying to sniff out more ways the transfer could fit into next season's rotation. This was before there was any inkling that the Buckeyes would lose Muhammad and end up another body light at guard, but a thought popped into Holtmann's head that Sueing could function as a kind of reserve ballhandler, too, in addition to his work on the wing.

"He's got very good vision, good passing skills," Holtmann said.

Sueing had 105 assists in two years at Cal, less than two per game, but he can handle the ball, penetrate and has the size at 6-foot-6 to see over a defense while doing so. What really attracted Ohio State to Sueing in the first place was his nose for the rim and how he seeks contact. He's only a career 30 percent shooter from deep, but that jumps up to 50 percent on 2-pointers and his free-throw rate of 50.9 percent as a sophomore at Cal (how often he got to the line) would have been tops last year among a group of OSU perimeter players who didn't have anyone with a free-throw rate greater than 37 percent. Put more plainly, Sueing puts pressure on the interior of a defense, and the Buckeyes need more of that from their perimeter players.

The biggest adjustment for Sueing, who had foot surgery in January while he was sitting out but should be cleared well in advance of the season, will be on the defensive end. Cal wasn't a particularly good defensive team while he was there — wasn't particularly good at anything, really — and that can invite some bad habits. He's had some time to understand Holtmann's defensive system since coming over last summer, but with Muhammad and Andre Wesson gone, OSU needs multiple guys to fill the void defending the perimeter.

Musa Jallow
2019-20: Junior — DNP/Injury

That leads us nicely into Jallow's role next year. He missed all of last year after undergoing ankle surgery just before the season, but like Sueing is expected to be a go whenever things get back to normal. Sitting out the year meant that Jallow, though technically a fourth-year junior, will actually be in the appropriate class next year after he graduated high school early to be a part of Holtmann's first recruiting class in 2017.

Up until this point he's been about a 15-minute-per-game player, and an occasional spark — think at Purdue in his freshman year, or against Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore. He might figure to benefit most from Muhammad's transfer, because suddenly Jallow is Ohio State's best perimeter defender. At least, he has the skill set to be. And that's going to be his role next year, give between 10 and 20 minutes each night, sometimes more, of great defense and knock down open shots. Jallow brought up his 3-point shooting from 25 percent as a freshman to 33 percent as a sophomore, though he's never been anything close to a high-volume offensive option. He still doesn't need to be, but his athleticism and versatility make him valuable as someone who can rebound from the guard position while defending two, and on some nights depending on the point guard matchup, three perimeter positions.

(Jeffrey Becker / USA Today)

Kyle Young
2019-20: Junior — 7.5  ppg, 5.8 rpg

He figures to be Ohio State's starting five man next year, and at 6-foot-8 that could create some unique matchups for Young. Offensively, he started to become more than just a putback guy last year while his scoring, free-throw rate and rebounding all took a step forward and his turnover rate dropped. Still, what he did best was play off his teammates and that will likely be his contribution as a senior while he scraps and does the little things. Durability is a bit of question. Young has played in 81 out of a possible 100 games in his career while battling issues like appendicitis, high ankle sprains and a stress fracture in his leg that's lingered for two years. You could argue, given all of those setbacks, that he should have missed more time. When he's healthy, he's quietly one of Ohio State's most important players because of all of the things he's willing to do to make an impact on winning.

Playing smaller with players like Young and E.J. Liddell at center could create some favorable situations for Ohio State on the offensive end, but it also calls into question how the Buckeyes might function as an interior defensive team.

E.J. Liddell
2019-20: Freshman — 6.7 ppg, 3.8 rpg

Which brings us to Liddell. There's an expectation that his offensive game will blossom as he heads into his second year. He started to break out some over the latter part of his freshman year with a more defined role. He averaged 10 points and six rebounds over the final six games of the season. His offensive game, outside of a midrange shot that was consistently good for him, must continue to grow. If you're a believer that free-throw shooting can be a precursor for good touch from other areas of the floor, Liddell shot better than 70 percent from the line as a freshman. Anything he can do to become more efficient away from the basket and around the rim finishing against length will help foster that growth OSU is looking for.

Liddell's growth on the defensive end, though, might be more important to Ohio State's success next year. Like Young, he'll be an undersized interior defender at 6-foot-7. But he's got length and leaping ability to make up for it. His 2.3 blocks per 40 minutes were the most among the regular rotation players and he's got about 30 pounds on Young. There will also be a premium placed on Liddell's ability to defend bigger bodies without fouling. He led the regulars with 4.6 fouls per 40 minutes last year, and Ohio State doesn't have the frontcourt depth to contend with nights that Liddell might find himself in foul trouble.

His growth is arguably more pivotal to Ohio State's success next year than any player on the roster.

Justin Ahrens
2019-20: Sophomore — 2.9 ppg, 1.3 rpg

In limited action, less than 10 minutes per game over two years, Ahrens has consistently shot the ball well from 3-point range. Last year he shot 40 percent on 57 total attempts. That's what he brings to the table, and Ohio State could use it with four of the team's top-six 3-point shooters leaving and only Towns coming in with any kind of significant track record of shooting the ball well from deep. The question for Ahrens has always been about what else he can give you to stay on the floor, whether that's defense or rebounding.

It took him some time to feel comfortable last year after an offseason back injury, and though he had some good stretches, he played less than 10 minutes in the final six games. There's still a crowd in front of him on the wing. Andre Wesson is gone, but Jallow is healthy, Sueing and Towns are joining the fold and freshman Gene Brown is a similar kind of wing shooter with probably a little more upside. All indications are that Ahrens plans to be with the Buckeyes for his junior year, thought it's hard to figure exactly what his role might be given all the shuffling on the wing. And it's fair to wonder whether he'll ultimately end his career in Columbus or eventually look for a spot that affords him more consistent opportunities.

Ibrahima Diallo
2019-20: Freshman — 1.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg

You like Diallo to be the fist player off the bus at 6-foot-10 and 220 pounds, but he only played 40 total minutes over eight games as a freshman. It's hard to glean much from that, other than Ohio State is still trying to figure out what they have in the big man. From a personality standpoint, his teammates seem to love him and he seemed to really enjoy his first season of college basketball. He and Liddell are roommates and close friends, and I think that bond might have helped those two soldier through a year in which two of their classmates (Carton and Gaffney) were trying to find their place before ultimately deciding to leave.

What that means for Diallo's sophomore prospects is anyone's guess. There should be some minutes behind Liddell and Young in the frontcourt, but Diallo will be pushed for those by incoming freshman Zed Key. For Diallo, who's only been playing basketball a couple of years, it continues to be about development. Anything he might be able to give the Buckeyes next year will be a bonus.

Gene Brown
2019-20: 16.6 ppg, 9 rpg, 1.7 apg as a senior at Southwest DeKalb High School in Decatur, Ga.

The first piece of Holtmann's 2020 recruiting class is a 6-foot-6 wing who made 138 3s in 97 high school games and is coming off the most efficient season of his prep career. Brown, who plays for his dad at Southwest DeKalb, shot 48 percent overall as a senior and 38 percent on 3s. He can slash and score from all three levels, off the dribble and on spot-ups, giving him some different options to make his presence known as an offensive player once he gets on campus. What he's able to do on defense, though, could be the difference in how much he plays as a freshman. He'll be in the running for those wing minutes just like Jallow, Sueing, Towns and Ahrens; and his length should be an asset in that battle for playing time. Anything he can do to establish himself as a viable two-way option early will go a long way in determining his role next year.

Zed Key
2019-20: 18.9 ppg, 10.2 rpg. 2.8 bpg as a senior at Long Island Lutheran High School in Glen Head, N.Y.

Key is probably a little better situated than Brown to find some consistent minutes as a freshman, only because as things stand right now, his size could be needed. He's a sturdy, 6-foot-8, 235-pound, back-to-the-basket big man with the touch to step out some. He has length that should help him rebound and rim protect early while he makes the adjustment to the rigors of playing inside in the Big Ten. He finished through contact at the high school level. That's a different proposition in college, but Key seems to be starting from a good spot physically. He'll set screens and won't need the ball a whole lot at the start. He also comes from a winning high school program, something valued by this staff. Young and Liddell are the top options in the frontcourt, but there should be something left on the bone for Key to find a regular role in his first year.

Jimmy Sotos
2019-20: Junior — 11.5 ppg, 3.9 apg, 3.5 rpg at Bucknell

The newest addition to the roster — Sotos committed to Ohio State on Monday — will plan on sitting out a year before becoming eligible to play in the 2021-22 season. It remains a possibility that the NCAA will change transfer rules to allow one-time exceptions in basketball as early as next season. The vibe I'm getting at the moment is that the new rule, which will be voted on in June, won't take hold until the 2021-22 season. Even if the rule does change, I've been told that Sotos would prefer to sit a year anyway while developing some more and learning OSU's system before stepping into the point guard void in two years after Walker is gone. Among the traits the 6-foot-3 Sotos will bring to the table once eligible: a career 35 percent clip from behind the arc and a passing touch that led to 390 assists in three seasons at Bucknell.

What's next?

Wesson's expected pro turn would open up another scholarship for next year. That could be used for another guard to come in and back up Walker and Washington, though touting backup minutes in today's transfer market is likely a hard sell. The Buckeyes could also hold off on using the open scholarship for right now and see what might become available later this summer or in the next recruiting class.

(Top photo of Duane Washington: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)