Ohio State Basketball: Breakdown of Buckeyes depth chart for 2020-21

Centers

In this day and age of college hoops, the true Center role is dying, but Ibrahima Diallo is the only true center on the Buckeyes roster, and he played in just eight games last year as a true freshman. Another big reason he didn’t play is, well, you guessed it, Andre Wesson, who took up a bulk of the time underneath.

The role this year should be distributed among Diallo, Young, and will mostly be matchup based. Expect Kyle Young to get a majority of the starts underneath because he has the most experience and is a decent enough rebounder. The starting center may play about 20 minutes and the rest will be divvied up between whichever players come in next.

If Holtmann wants Key to get right into game action, center may be the best place to do it. In Diallo’s eight games, he averaged 1.3 points and 1.9 rebounds, so he’s a good rebounder, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, rebounding and defense underneath will have to be a gang effort this year.

Aside from Diallo and Young, Liddell, Towns, and maybe even Ahrens could see time at center if Holtmann wants to spread the floor and get the offense working a little bit. Ahrens doesn’t have the bulk to stay competitive underneath, but he would bring the big men to the perimeter and allow the inside to open up for possible easy buckets.

Expect the Buckeyes to rotate anybody and everybody among multiple positions this year. Position-less basketball is becoming more prevalent, and the 2020-21 roster for Ohio State sets up nicely to do just that, whether it’s in the frontcourt or backcourt. Holtmann should be trusted to put his players in the best position to succeed, and this will be his biggest challenge yet.