Ohio State basketball: Buckeyes need to get healthy

The Ohio State basketball team has a big problem right now. It’s worse than the fact that they keep blowing big second half leads and playing down to their competition. It’s the fact that they are an extremely banged up team at the worst possible time of the year.

Both Zed Key and Kyle Young missed the last game against Michigan State. Young even missed the second half of the Nebraska game when Key missed not all. Justice Sueing and Seth Towns won’t play at all this season. It’s a real problem heading into March. 

It’s unclear when Young and Key might be back. They might be back for the game tomorrow against TTUN, but it’s not known yet. Technically, Sueing hasn’t been ruled out of playing this season yet, but I can’t imagine he does this late in the year. It wouldn’t make sense. 

This means that more players need to step up and play to a higher level. Joey Brunk did that against Michigan State last game. You can’t expect him to put up 18 points every game so someone else needs to pick it up. Jamari Wheeler needs to have more games like he did against the Spartans. That would help a lot.

Health is one thing the Ohio State basketball team can’t control, but they can control their response to it. If the Buckeyes want any chance of winning anything in March, they can’t let the lack of health hold them back. They have to keep pushing ahead with who they have. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have very much faith in them doing that in the NCAA Tournament. We’ll see what kind of seeding matchup they get in a week though. Then we’ll be able to fully asses what kind of chance this team has of making any kind of run.