Chris Holtmann opens up on Justice Sueing's shooting issues

There’s no question that the Ohio State Buckeyes have been struggling this season, losing their last six games and most recently falling to Michigan State at home 62-41. But their second-leading scorer Justice Sueing has also been struggling lately from behind the arc. Following the game, Buckeyes head coach Chris Holtmann spoke about the three point shooting of Sueing as of late.

“We’ve looked at him in practice and he’s pretty consistently a sold shooter, I wouldn’t call him a great shooter, but a solid shooter,” Holtmann admitted.

Holtmann elaborated on the fact that Sueing had less responsibility in the team’s three-point shooting attack last season due to the number of sharpshooters in their starting lineup. But this season he has struggled at times with his increased role as one of the team’s primary deep range scorers.

“And I think for this team if our shooting was better at other positions and I think we had, and he didn’t really need to take many threes on that team if you remember who we had on that team,” Holtmann explained. “You had Justin (Ahrens), you had Duane (Washington), you had EJ (Liddell) who was shooting it well, a five-man who could shoot threes. So he could take wide-open ones and he had a lot of wide-open ones.”

Sueing has struggled from behind the arc lately for the Buckeyes, in his last ten games shooting 4-27 from three-point range. He’s shooting a career-low 24.2% on his three-pointers, but Holtmann still has full faith in his forward, encouraging him to still shoot the long ball.

“But he’s a better shooter than what he shot right now, I didn’t have issue with some of his shots. I think he needs to keep taking rhythm ones for this team Bill, for this team he does,” Holtmann said.

Sueing may be struggling from behind the arc, but not scoring the basketball in general, scoring double figures in four of Ohio State’s last seven games. And while the three-ball may not be sinking for him, it has been for their leading scorer Brice Sensabaugh. Sensabaugh has been hot for the Buckeyes from downtown, making 44.9% of his three-pointers on the season and leading the team with 48 three point makes this season.

The Buckeyes still rank fourth in the Big Ten in three-point percentage despite Sueing’s struggles, and maybe an increase in his production can help shift the Buckeyes’ momentum to close out the regular season.