With less than a month to go before Ohio State opens its 2016-17 basketball season, a large group witnessed the Buckeyes practice Wednesday afternoon as part of the program's Agonis Club event.
Ohio State opens the season Friday, Nov. 11 in Annapolis, Maryland against Navy.
Prior to Wednesday's practice, Buckeyes redshirt junior guard Kam Williams met with reporters to give a brief update on how the first few weeks of practice have gone so far for Ohio State.
"Things are going pretty good," Williams said. "We've got a couple areas we need to clean up like turnovers and shot selection, but as far as energy and toughness, we're at a good place right now. We're playing hard, everybody is eager to practice, everybody is eager to get in the gym so I think that will work out in our favor when we step out on the court for the first time."
There was roughly an hour long viewing window for practice Wednesday. Here are some observations from what we saw.
- The most notable observation was junior forward Keita Bates-Diop was not practicing Wednesday. He was dressed in his practice attire but did not do any drills or scrimmaging with the team. According to the Columbus Dispatch's Adam Jardy, Buckeyes head coach Thad Matta said Bates-Diop was dealing with a minor shin injury but is expected to be back to practice by Friday.
- With Bates-Diop out, the team was split into two groups. The scarlet team consisted of Jae'Sean Tate, JaQuan Lyle, Andre Wesson, Joey Lane and rotating big men of Trevor Thompson and Dave Bell. The gray team was made up of Williams, Marc Loving, C.J. Jackson, Derek Funderburk and Micah Potter.
- In his return from offseason shoulder and ankle injuries, Tate appeared to look like his normal self. He had a bounce to his step as he attacked several defenders off the dribble and played with his trademark energy. Despite having surgery on his shooting shoulder, Tate's jumper appeared to look a bit more refined, as well.
- Jackson's poise and patience stood out. He's a true point guard. He delivered some very crisp passes and has a solid looking jump shot from 3-point range. Jackson seems like he will be a nice complement to Lyle, who is more of a scoring guard at the point position.
- Speaking of Lyle, the sophomore was quite vocal, especially on the defensive end of the floor. He definitely looks like he's dropped a few pounds and might be a tad bit quicker because of that.
- Potter and Funderburk each looked like they could be contributors this year as freshmen. I was most impressed with Potter, who has a smoothness to his game and his outside shooting ability is something we haven't seen from an Ohio State big man probably since Jared Sullinger. He can stretch the defense and that could be a huge weapon.
- Wesson was brought to Ohio State because he can shoot from the outside and he's capable of guarding multiple positions defensively. I'm not sure how much he'll play this year as a freshman, but he was holding his own on defense when he was matched up with Williams, Funderburk and Loving.
- Loving made a couple of deep 3-pointers off nice feeds from Jackson. He didn't seem to have the ball in his hands a ton, either, as the offense looked to be more free-flowing. Loving is best when others create for him rather than he creates for himself and he looked to be in a pretty good rhythm from deep Wednesday.
- Speaking of the free-flowing offense, there appeared to be more movement away from the ball and that can probably be tied to Chris Jent's impact. Jent was the most vocal of all the coaches during practice and it seems like he's going to be in charge of running the offense this year — something that Greg Paulus had been tasked with the last few seasons.
