NCAA Basketball: Analyzing 2021 5-star C Chet Holmgren’s top 7 schools
By Ian Mumm
Ohio State Buckeyes
The second Big-Ten team on the Holmgren’s list is Ohio State. The Buckeyes had a fantastic and somewhat expected nonconference rise into the nation’s top-10 teams. With blowout wins of Villanova and North Carolina, in addition to a neutral-site win over Kentucky, the rest of college basketball took notice of what was happening in Columbus.
Anchored by junior Kaleb Wesson, Ohio State had a terrific inside-out game and a stable of sharpshooting guards to down opponents. With his departure this offseason, the torch is being passed to Zed Key and Ibrahima Diallo for the 2020 season. The latter is largely unproven and would be passed on the depth chart by the addition of Holmgren.
Chris Holtmann has not been shy about allowing his frontcourt players to shoot perimeter shots out of pick-and-pop situations or as secondary options on plays run in the halfcourt. Holmgren’s natural shooting tendencies will mesh well with the Buckeyes offensive priorities and like Wesson he will receive a large portion of the team’s looks. The chance for him to score efficiently from the short corner on post entry passes is also a possibility for him to produce a lot of points.
The Buckeyes frontcourt still has a lot of athletic and physical players that will allow Holmgren to guard any number of positions and switch off with his teammates. With the potential to spend time guarding perimeter players or stretch forwards, there will be opportunities to disrupt shooters at the 3-point line and function as a shot blocker behind the play.