Chris Holtmann provides latest update on veteran forward Justice Sueing

Ohio State senior forward Justice Sueing, who’s been dealing with an abdominal injury throughout the 2021-22 season, is on the right track to recovery, according to Buckeyes’ head coach Chris Holtmann.

During a press conference on Monday, Holtmann shared that Sueing – a 6-foot-7, 215-pound big who’s played in just two games for Ohio State this season – is “starting to do some things in practice.” Holtmann noted that Sueing’s been experiencing some soreness and isn’t close to being back, but said that “he’s taking steps.”

Sueing, a former On3 Consensus three-star recruit out of the Class of 2017 who played his first two seasons at Cal, averaged six points and 3.5 rebounds over his two games played with Ohio State this season. He put up 10.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for the Buckeyes in 2020-21.

Ohio State has been managing to play without Sueing throughout the year, as the Buckeyes are currently 12-4 overall with a 5-2 mark in Big Ten play. OSU returns to action Thursday on the road at Minnesota, with tipoff scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Holtmann reveals what went wrong in loss to Wisconsin

Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann addressed the media after his team’s 78-68 loss to Wisconsin on Jan. 13 about what exactly went wrong in Madison that night.

“We’re such a good shooting team and we had some good looks that we missed, but I also thought they really hugged [our] shooters,” Holtmann said. “They’re not going to give your best shooters clean looks. We just couldn’t take advantage of that enough.”

As a collective, the Buckeyes shot 50% (30-60) from the floor, but went just 3-19 (15.8 percent) from deep and 5-10 from the charity stripe.

Five Ohio State players scored in double figures, but it was their star forward E.J. Liddell that led the team with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting and cashing in on two of his 3-point attempts.

Wisconsin led the entire way and found itself up by as much as 17 points against the Buckeyes, something Holtmann wasn’t pleased with.

“We just didn’t have a consistent enough defensive effort to win on the road,” Holtmann said. “Offensively, we were much better in the second half; a much better rhythm, but too many turnovers early and not a good enough collective defensive effort.”

On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this report.