Ohio State Basketball: Young could make Buckeyes dangerous

Ohio State basketball has high hopes for this new season, but a bulk of their scoring came from an unlikely source in their first game of the year.

Despite an ugly start in which they did not score through the first seven-and-a-half minutes, Ohio State basketball won its season opener over Cincinnati 64-56 on Wednesday.

In a year where fans are hyped up to see the play of star big man Kaleb Wesson who averaged 14.6 points per game last year and 6.9 rebounds, someone else shined for the Buckeyes last night. That someone else was junior forward Kyle Young.

Young was a man on a mission as he led the Buckeyes with 14 points and 13 rebounds on six-of-seven shooting. Good thing too because Wesson only had eight points on three-of-seven shooting and missed all three of his free throw attempts.

Can Young keep this up? I have no clue, but head coach Chris Holtmann had good things to say about him after the game.

This is what Holtmann said after the game, according to The Lantern.

"“Kyle’s got one thing on his mind when he plays. And that is Ohio State winning,” head coach Chris Holtmann said. “That is the only thing that matters to him.”"

If Young could continue this production, assuming that Wesson plays much better than last night’s eight-point performance, then he could be huge for this team that has big aspirations.

Last year, C.J. Jackson was the only Buckeye other than Wesson to average more than 10 points per game as he scored 12 per game. Jackson is gone and while they expect guys like D.J. Carton, C.J. Walker, Andre Wesson or Luther Muhammad to pick up that scoring load it would be great if Young could too.

Additionally, Young was Ohio State’s second-leading rebounder last year, but he only averaged 4.4 rebounds per game. No one was really even close to Kaleb Wesson’s 6.9 per game. Rebounding can be the difference in ball games so if Ohio State can get another guy who averages close to double-digit rebounds that could add at least two or three more wins this season.

I am not saying Young will be an All-American or even All-Big Ten, and the Buckeyes don’t need him to be. If he can, however, add another scoring punch and gobble up some rebounds then the Big Ten better watch out – the Buckeyes are coming.