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Ohio State Basketball 2022-23 season preview

By Ryan Stano

Ohio State Buckeyes forward Zed Key (23) celebrates a defensive stop late in the second half of the NCAA men's basketball game against the Duke Blue Devils at Value City Arena in Columbus on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. Ohio State won 71-66.Duke At Ohio State Big Ten Acc Challenge
Ohio State Buckeyes forward Zed Key (23) celebrates a defensive stop late in the second half of the NCAA men's basketball game against the Duke Blue Devils at Value City Arena in Columbus on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. Ohio State won 71-66.Duke At Ohio State Big Ten Acc Challenge /
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It may be the thick of football season right now, but Ohio State basketball isn’t that far away. The Buckeyes actually have their first scrimmage on November 1st against Chaminade. That’s less than a week away! Their first real game comes on November 7th against Rober Morris.

So with that in mind, it’s time to do our season preview. We will follow this up with some predictions for how the season will go tomorrow as well. What do you need to know about this team? Let’s start with the personnel because it’s almost brand new.

Only Justice Sueing, Zed Key, and Eugene Brown return from last season in terms of guys who played significant minutes. Everyone else is a newcomer. In fact, the Buckeyes welcome five new freshmen to the fold this season as well as three transfers.

We’ll see what the starting lineup ends up being, but Sueing is the guy who should be driving this team. He’s fully healthy and is ready to make some contributions. He has shown flashes of being a really solid offensive player while being very switchable on defense.

How he is able play offensively will set the tone for the rest of the guys. Tanner Holden was a 20 points per game scorer last year at Wright State and has some length, so he is another guy to watch too. Sean McNeil is a guy who shot nearly 37% from three on nearly 5 attempts last year, so he can help spread the floor.

To me, the guy who determines how far this team will go is Zed Key. Key is someone who is going to be looked at as the main defender in the paint. He has long arms but needed to work on moving his feet laterally better in order to become a good defender. He’s had foul issues in his career.

Key has been given the green light to shoot threes from Chris Holtmann. This will be a new experience for him, so we’ll see how well it goes. I don’t have particularly high hopes in that regard, but if he can even shoot 33% that opens up the floor in a big way.

I’m excited to see what this team has to offer. The schedule is brutal though. The Ohio State basketball team takes on North Carolina, Duke, and San Diego State in the nonconference portion of the schedule. That also doesn’t include their trip to the Maui Invitational.

Next. Ohio State basketball not in first AP top 25 poll. dark

It’s going to be an interesting ride, that’s for sure!

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