Ohio State Men’s Basketball head coach Chris Holtmann watches his team during the Ohio State-Illinois State game on Nov. 25. Ohio State won 94-67. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Following a disappointing start to conference play, the Buckeyes are looking to get in the win column in the Big Ten standings.
No. 23 Ohio State (6-1) bounced back from its conference opening defeat to Purdue with a 77-70 win over UCLA Saturday. With No. 11 Rutgers (6-0) coming to Columbus, Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann praised the Scarlet Knights for their early accomplishments this season.
“This is a tremendous Rutgers team — deep, balanced, really well coached,” Holtmann said Tuesday. “They’ve got a lot of returning guys and some guys that are emerging in terms of all-conference players.”
In his four-year tenure at head coach, Rutgers’ Steve Pikiell has led a resurgence within the program — coaching Rutgers to its first winning season as a member of the Big Ten in the 2019-20 season.
“I think he’s a terrific coach and done it his way, and obviously, dealt with some struggles early as he was building it but I think they have great belief, as an administration, in what he’s done and can do and going to continue to do,” Holtmann said.
The Scarlet Knights are spearheaded by junior forward Ron Harper Jr., who averages 24.0 points per game — which is the second highest mark in the Big Ten. The New Jersey native is shooting a conference-best 52.5 percent from three.
Harper led Rutgers in its upset win over then-No. 13 Illinois with 28 points and nine rebounds.
“There’s no question he’s a bonafide NBA prospect, there’s no question in my mind, he’s certainly one of the best players in our league right now,” Holtmann said. “He’s a mismatch challenge, again I think he’s a terrific talent.”
In the backcourt, the Scarlet Knights have three talented guards — including senior guard Geo Baker who led Rutgers in assists last season with 3.5 per game.
Joining Baker in the backcourt is senior guard Jacob Young and junior guard Montez Mathis. Young and Mathis have the second- and third-highest scoring outputs on the Scarlet Knights with 16.5 and 14.0 points per game, respectively.
On the interior, junior center Myles Johnson serves as a defensive catalyst for Rutgers — averaging a Big Ten-best 2.7 blocks alongside one steal per game. Johnson adds 8.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.
“Myles Johnson has tremendous size and he’s an older player,” Holtmann said. “He’s a really, really effective big in our league and he doesn’t get talked about enough.”
After making his Buckeye debut Saturday, Holtmann said graduate forward Seth Towns will still be evaluated on a game-to-game basis.
“He’s not ready to play a significant amount of minutes, he’s just not, he’s not physically quite ready for that,” Holtmann said. “The young man has worked really hard to get back to this point, but it’s not a situation where he’s necessarily ready to play significant minutes.”
Towns played just two minutes against UCLA and missed on his only shot attempt on the day.
On Saturday, the Buckeyes relied on their freshman duo of forward Zed Key and guard Eugene Brown III. Key put up 11 points and six rebounds, while Brown added 9 points on 3-of-3 shooting from three in just eight minutes.
Holtmann said that the pair of freshmen have made a significant impact for the Buckeyes through seven games.
“Both guys have been able to help us this year in a lot of ways,” Holtmann said. “It’s been great to see the progress of those guys, I’m sure we’ll deal with ups and downs but they have certainly helped our team.”
Wednesday’s game will mark the second of 20 scheduled Big Ten games Ohio State will potentially play leading up to the postseason.
Holtmann said the conference slate can provide great experience prior to tournament play, but also noted that the Big Ten’s competitive nature requires a single-game mindset.
“It’s the greatest the league has been able to show when you talk about overall depth and NCAA tournament teams,” Holtmann said. “I think you just try to take it one game at a time. We’re playing a great Rutgers team — it’s a top-10 team. We’ve got to perform well and we’ve got to play our best game of the season.”
