Justice Sueing opens up on Ohio State's recent growth

Since the calendar turned to 2023, it has been tough going for the Ohio State men’s basketball team. The Buckeyes have won just three out of their last 17 games.

But following a win over Illinois over the weekend, the Buckeyes have a little late season proof to the fact that they’re still improving. Redshirt senior wing Justice Sueing explained that even though the wins weren’t coming, the team felt the improvement along the way.

“Just shows to how bought in everyone is on the team. We just needed that one game to get us over that hump. Today was a good one. But I know I gotta say we’re going to come back tomorrow, look at some film, correct some things that we need to work on, but we have the same mentality. We’re going to continue to try to build off of this and get better,” Sueing said.

While the only hope Ohio State has of making the NCAA Tournament is a championship in the Big Ten tournament, any sort of rebound to the season would be a decent code to an otherwise trying back half of the season.

And maybe the Buckeyes get hot and make a run at the Big Ten tournament. Stranger things have happened.

Chris Holtmann praises play of Eugene Brown

Ohio State snapped a nine-game losing skid with a 72-60 win over Illinois this weekend, and the Buckeyes got some terrific performances from players down the bench like Eugene Brown.

Brown played 17 minutes and managed to score nine points, pull down four rebounds and pry away two steals from the Illini.

“I thought Gene was great,” coach Chris Holtmann said after the game. “I thought Gene was great.”

The Buckeyes had to play a little unconventionally as a result of the way the Illini set their lineup.

According to Holtmann the forward-heavy lineup kept his Buckeyes from getting a few other players he would have liked more involved into the action.

“You know it’s interesting how we’re playing without Zed (Key),” Holtmann said. “We’re a little bit faster and a little bit more versatile and Isaac (Likekele) and Gene really fight in there. They really fight in there. We thought (Dain) Dainja, we’d see Dainja more. I wish I could have played Felix (Okpara) more. It’s just they went with a bunch of forwards so it was hard to get him in there longer.”