It should not be implied that Ohio State is a one-man team.
E.J. Liddell is great, and this article is mostly going to be about the various ways in which his greatness is both evident and necessary, but what he's done so far in Ohio State's relatively young season is interesting in part because there are so many unique role players for the Buckeyes this year.
Take Zed Key. We all love Zed, because he's Zed, but also because he's the epitome of a scrappy Big Ten player who loves to bang in the paint and is a double-double threat every game. Or Kyle Young; same deal, but a little older and wiser, who apparently has added a decent threeball to his repertoire. Justin Ahrens might not have ever developed into the John Diebler we all hoped that he would, but he's improved his defense and is still capable of getting hot from distance.
Add in some intriguing younger players like Meechie Johnson, Jr. and Malaki Branham who have to potential to blow up as the season goes on, and this is an Ohio State team with some surprisingly fun depth to parse.
But note the operative words of "threat," and "capable," and "potential." Zed Key and Kyle Young have zero actual double-doubles between then so far this season. Ahrens has looked great against the likes of Towson, Bowling Green, and Seaton Hall, and less than impressive versus everyone else. Branham had been consistently very good for the Buckeyes, but put up zero points in 14 minutes against Wisconsin. Johnson had a few impressive early games, but appeared way in over his head playing Florida and Duke.
Which brings us back to Liddell.
It isn't surprising that Liddell is being asked to carry most of the offensive load for the Buckeyes. In an impressive win against Wisconsin, it's at least a little notable that he scored 28 of Ohio State's 73 points, or 17 more points than anyone else on the roster. Zed Key had 11, and no one else was in double figures for the Buckeyes. On the season, Liddell is averaging 20.6 points per game, almost double Key's 10.4, the next closest scorer.
And it hasn't worked out this way most games (recent wins against Penn State and Duke are great examples of what can happen when the Buckeyes share the load), but when E.J. Liddell is the only functional part of the offense, it is glaringly obvious. In the Florida loss, Liddell outscored the rest of the starters combined, and only a huge effort by Kyle Young coming off the bench for just 14 minutes kept pace with what Liddell was bringing on the court.
Still, it's easy to come away from this Wisconsin win and think... does any of this matter? Isn't it possible to just let E.J. cook, play sound defense, shrug as Holtmann anoints Zed Key as the number two scoring option, and win an assload of games anyway?
Because the answer might be: yeah, actually. Maybe it is.
The last time that a singular Ohio State player had so much domination of the stat line takes us all the way back to Thad Matta's 2012-13 squad. Just typing these names feels like some ancient incantation that will turn me into a bowl of soup, but led by Deshaun Thomas, Aaron Craft (a junior at the time!), Lenzelle Smith, and Evan Ravenel (yes, seriously) that Ohio State team was extremely kickass. They won 29 games and just barely missed out on the Final Four, and did it with Thomas scoring double what anyone else on the roster was doing on a game-by-game basis.
Of course, to that team's credit, they also had Aaron Craft doing Aaron Craft things on defense (and, it should be noted, Lenzelle Smith doing Lenzelle Smith things on defense), which helps make up for a lack of offense at times. That's an element that the current iteration of the Buckeyes lack, but hell: they beat Duke. And Penn State and Wisconsin, and even without Justice Sueing and Seth Towns, the Buckeyes seem to be rounding into form.
Up next they play a Kentucky team, who just played Notre Dame. Wildcats star Oscar Tshiebwe scored 25 against the Fighting Irish, more than twice as much as any of his teammates. Notre Dame didn't have anyone score more than 14, but ended up upsetting Kentucky, 66-62. In a week, we should see which trend wins out.
