Buckeyes get tournament boost as Kyle Young, Zed Key ready for return
COLUMBUS — A late-season free fall for Ohio State happened mostly without two key Buckeyes contributors.
If there’s a chance for redemption, it starts Friday in the NCAA Tournament. The good news for the Ohio State? As Chris Holtmann’s team tips off against Loyola Chicago, both Zed Key and Kyle Young will be available for Ohio State.
That provides a major boost to a roster that’s struggled to catch its breath lately. The Buckeyes have seen a mad dash through the last month of the season and it’s gone poorly. Fatigue and injury issues are real, but so are a number of late-game collapses. Ohio State hasn’t been able to put its full roster on the court for most of the season. Holtmann said Young and Key were “getting healthier” during his Thursday media appearance. Still, he wouldn’t make a final statement on their availability until Friday morning.
That final statement is big for the Buckeyes. How much Young and Key play will be up in their, but there’s no doubt just being able to go changes Ohio State.
Young, dealing with a concussion and subsequent concussion-related issues, hasn’t played since March 1. Key injured his ankle at Maryland on February 27 and has played just seven minutes since.
Ohio State (19-11) has been relying heavily on the one-two punch of E.J. Liddell and Malaki Branham for its offense but without Young and Key the Buckeyes have struggled on defense and on the glass. Those guys are energy creators for Holtmann. Ohio State is 1-4 in its last five games, a stretch that saw teams regularly beating the Buckeyes to the rim without much resistance.
After an embarrassing first-round loss as a No. 2 seed a season ago, the pressure is on Holtmann and his team to return to their early-season form. Ohio State was one of the hottest programs in the country in December before a two-week Covid shutdown. The struggles of the last few weeks, exacerbated by a chaotic schedule necessary to make up those Covid games, have dampened what felt like a potentially special season.
For a healthy Buckeyes team the chance to right the ship in the tournament is in front of them.
“We made it to March Madness, and now we have to prove ourselves, honestly,” Liddell said Thursday. “We have to have that underdog mentality because I feel like a lot of people have been counting us out recently. I feel like people forgot about how we play when we’re fully healthy and we’re all locked into everything.
“Come tomorrow, you will see a different team.”
With the return of Zed Key and Kyle Young, that statement is perhaps more true than Liddell intended.
