How Will Ohio State Fare Without Brice Sensabaugh?
The Ohio State Buckeyes' men's basketball season was abysmal for almost a two-month stretch.
From Jan. 5 until Feb. 26, Ohio State lost 14 of 15 games and had no momentum whatsoever. A 72-60 win against Illinois sparked a little momentum, as the Buckeyes won five of their last seven games of the season and became the first double-digit seed in Big Ten Tournament history to advance to the semifinal round.
Buckeyes forward Brice Sensabaugh, who is a projected first-round prospect in the 2023 NBA Draft, said that run to end the season was jump-started by the unit "coming together as a team."
"We had a whole new team of new guys," Sensabaugh told Big Ten Network's Andy Katz. "So just gelling together and we went through a lot of adversity together, so just having each other's backs and holding each other accountable was important for us and we tried to turn it around late in the season."
Sensabaugh was one of the freshman that helped band together and end the lost season without a sour taste in their mouths.
In the Buckeyes' road game against Purdue Feb. 19, coach Chris Holtmann started four freshman — Sensabaugh, Bruce Thornton, Roddy Gayle Jr. and Felix Okpara — and Justice Sueing. That lineup started six of the next seven games until Sensabaugh suffered a season-ending knee injury in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament against Iowa.
Ohio State returns that sophomore core as well as Zed Key, who missed the final nine games of the season with an injured labrum.
The Buckeyes have the No. 10 recruiting class for 2023, welcoming three top-50 prospects in No. 39 Taison Chatman, No. 47 Devin Royal and No. 48 Scotty Middleton as well as the No. 25 center Austin Parks. They also will bring in three transfers in small forwards Penn State's Evan Mahaffey and Jamison Battle and Baylor shooting guard Dale Bonner.
Sensabaugh said next year's team will do "well" without him.
"They can build on last season," Sensabaugh said. "They've got the experience now and, you know, with those main guys being there, I think it'll be good for them. I'm excited to see what they can do."
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