Ohio State Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Buckeyes

2021-22 season outlook

With Wheeler leading the way and Liddell, Young, and Sueing all back in the rotation, Ohio State basketball has some intriguing pieces to work with heading into a new season. They’ve got 10 seniors, which means experience shouldn’t be an issue in 2021-22, but they’ll need guys to step up and fill the void left by the departures of C.J. Walker and Duane Washington Jr..

There’s room for the Buckeyes to make some early noise in their non-conference slate as they should enter the season ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll. There’s even more room for them to compete for the Big Ten regular-season crown given the question marks some other teams in the conference have.

With two of their top four scorers from a season ago back and five sharpshooters returning in their rotation that shot 33 percent or better from behind the arc, they’ve got a chance to be a good 3-point shooting team once again this year. In 2020-21, they finished third in Big Ten basketball in scoring offense (77.2 ppg) and fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (36.0 percent).

Coach Holtmann has an opportunity to prove his squad is more than just a good regular-season team, but with expectations high, he’ll have some question marks he’ll need to answer himself with getting guys to buy into their system early and establishing an identity, especially on the defensive end of the floor.

If Ohio State basketball can answer the call and make it past the first weekend of March Madness, something they’ve yet to do in four seasons under Holtmann, things could be looking up for the Buckeyes program in 2021-22.