Ohio State basketball: How Kyle Young can improve

Kyle Young used his free COVID year to come back and play one more year for the Ohio State basketball team. Here’s how he can improve his play to help the Buckeyes be better this year.

People forget that the Ohio State basketball team didn’t have Kyle Young for the final stretch of last season. Young was one of the key players for the Buckeyes. He wasn’t just their best defensive player, but he very well could have been their best leader.

Now, Young is back. Young will once again be the best defensive player the Buckeyes have. That distinction is between him and Jamari Wheeler. Either way, Young will definitely be the best defensive player that they have in the frontcourt.

Young will still be the most important player that Chris Holtmann has. Even so, he could improve to make him and the team even better. He has a limited skillset. Even so, he still improved his offensive skill set last year, especially in the middle of the season.

Young was able to get a nice skillset of jump hooks and post moves. He was very effective in the half-court in the Big Ten portion of Ohio State’s schedule. His three-point shooting still wasn’t great early, and that’s one of the things he can improve on.

Surprisingly, Young still shot 43% from deep last season. He did so taking only about one three a game. I’m sure that Holtmann would love to have Young keep that efficiency and increase his volume. That would very much help the Buckeyes in the future.

It’s not reasonable to expect Young to shoot that well for a whole season with increased attempts. But if he ends up shooting 3 or 4 threes a game and he can shoot 38%, that would be great. He would be a threat offensively in a way that would help the entire team with spacing.

His defense will be solid as ever. This is Young’s last rodeo. I’m sure he’s going to do everything he can to make it a good one.