Zed Key is No. 5 in our Ohio State men's basketball preseason power rankings

adam jardy, columbus dispatch

Thu, Nov 2, 2023, 11:11 AM·10 min read

Men’s basketball season is about to get underway, and it’s time to dive into the Ohio State roster.

After a 16-19 record that caused the Buckeyes to miss the postseason for the first time in coach Chris Holtmann’s six seasons with the program, Ohio State returns several key core players while adding a highly rated freshman class and a three-man transfer group all expected to make significant impacts.

To get ready for the season, The Dispatch is once again rolling out its annual preseason power rankings. Each day leading into the Nov. 6 season opener with Oakland, we will count upward while projecting which players will have the biggest roles on the 2023-24 season. This isn’t just a measurement of who will lead the team in any particular statistical category, but a series of educated guesses on which players’ contributions will go the longest way toward where the Buckeyes finish.

The series reaches the top five today with fourth-year big man Zed Key

No. 5 – Zed Key

Position: Center

Eligibility: Fourth year (one remaining)

Height/weight: 6 feet 8 / 235 pounds

Jersey number: 23

Major: Consumer and family financial services

Background

After playing his way onto Ohio State’s radar with a standout performance at the NBAPA Top 100 camp held at the University of Virginia in mid-June, 2019, he committed to Ohio State on Sept. 22, 2019, during a weekend he had initially scheduled an official visit to Marquette. An official visit was also scheduled for Florida the following weekend. The Buckeyes were his only official visit. Florida, Cincinnati, Georgia, Illinois, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Penn State and Rutgers, among others also offered him.

As a senior, Key led his team in scoring (15.9) and rebounding (8.7) average, blocked 2.0 shots per game and shot 68.1% (178 for 261) from the floor. He scored 25 points and had 12 rebounds in a win against Chatsworth (California) Sierra Canyon, a team ranked No. 2 nationally by MaxPreps.com. Key followed that up by scoring 37 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in a win against Hillside (New Jersey) The Patrick School. In addition to being one of five finalists to be named New York’s Mr. Basketball, Key was named to the all-tournament team in three different events: The 2019 Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, The ‘Iolani Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii, and The Montverde Invitational in Montverde, Florida. His season was cut short due to COVID-19. The Crusaders finished 22-3 overall.

He arrived at Ohio State in the middle of the pandemic as a three-star prospect in the 2020 class. The 247Sports.com composite database ranked him the nation’s No. 155 overall prospect, the No. 24 center in the country and the No. 4 player from New York.

In three seasons at Ohio State, Key has appeared in 85 games and averaged 7.7 points and 5.4 rebounds while shooting 56.9% from the floor.

Oct 19, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes forward Zed Key (23) plays defense during an open practice at Value City Arena.

2022-23 recap

Key’s third season at Ohio State will go down as one of the biggest individual “what-ifs” in recent program history. Through 13 games, the Buckeyes were 10-3 and 2-0 in the Big Ten thanks in part to Key’s emergence as a steadying post presence. The third-year center who is listed as a forward on the team roster was averaging 13.4 points and 8.4 rebounds, had posted five double-doubles and was shooting 69.8% on two-point field goals when No. 1 Purdue came to Value City Arena on Jan. 5.

Before the first media timeout, everything had changed. Key took a blow to his left shoulder and immediately came out of the game. Ohio State would go on to lose, Key was diagnosed with a left shoulder strain and nothing would be the same again. He sat out the next game and returned for a 70-67 home loss to cellar-dweller Minnesota but clearly wasn’t the same player. Battling with a restrictive brace on the injured shoulder, Key gutted out 11 more games before a 92-75 loss at Iowa on Feb. 16 led to the decision to shut him down for the season and undergo surgery.

In those 11 games, Key shot 46.3% from inside the 3-point line and averaged 8.8 points while dealing with a shoulder that, when he extended too far or took a hit in a certain way, would pop out and cause significant pain.

It all added up to career-high 10.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, but until the injury Key looked ticketed for so much more. He’d added a 3-point shot to his repertoire that, while not prolific, saw him go 6 for 19 (31.6%) after having never attempted one during his first two seasons. An elite offensive rebounder, Key still led the Buckeyes by pulling down 76 of them and finished 26th nationally with an offensive rebounding rate of 14.7% according to KenPom.com. It was his second consecutive season with a top-50 national finish in that category.

Key had a game-high 21 points and added eight rebounds in a loss at Duke on Nov. 30, the second straight season in which he had at least 20 points against the Blue Devils. Against a notoriously physical and tough Rutgers team, he scored a career-high 22 points on 9 of 12 shooting, hit a 3-pointer and pulled down 14 rebounds as the Buckeyes won their Big Ten opener against the Scarlet Knights.

Starting with the Purdue game where Key injured his shoulder, Ohio State lost 14 of its next 15 games. Key faced a six-month recovery from his shoulder surgery and was fully cleared for contact to start the preseason.

Key was a captain on the team.

“Zed is one of those guys you look up to because he’s been here through it all, on winning and losing teams,” sophomore guard Roddy Gayle Jr. said. “He brings a role that is not replaceable.”

Feb 12, 2023; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes forward Zed Key (23) attempts a layup in the second half of their NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Game at Value City Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch

Need to know

Key was given a specially made T-shirt from Homage reading “The Most Interesting Man In College Basketball” prior to the start of his junior season, and it’s likely as true today as when it was written. Key has his own pet snake named “7” that has its own Instagram page. He also has an Instagram page for his prized 1994 Lincoln Town Car, one that he’s customized with significant hydraulics. Adding to the whole picture, Key got a cat during the offseason that is named, well, “Scatpat.” It’s a rescue cat adopted from the Columbus Humane Society, and it has a unique relationship with 7.

“(They get along) fine right now,” Key said at Ohio State’s media day in late September. “In the beginning there was some differences. He thought (the snake) was a toy and he was hitting him, but now they’re getting along together. He climbs on the top of the cage. I tell him to get down or he’s going to be food.”

When Key scores and draws a foul, he shoots “finger guns” into the air before heading to the free-throw line. After dunks, he raises the roof while running back up the court. Key can build an entire engine on his own. His Ohio State teammates have called him “Mr. Fix-It,” and he’s been known to change tires, remove dents, replace car doors and mount new televisions for his fellow Buckeyes.

As a sophomore, Key participated in a TikTok dance video with Columbus police officer Anthony Johnson with the hopes of sending a message of positivity. He took a Big Ten civil rights trip to Montgomery, Alabama.

While on his official visit to Ohio State, Key spent time with program legends Evan Turner and D’Angelo Russell. He was primarily hosted by Duane Washington Jr., E.J. Liddell and Luther Muhammad. He has an aunt who lives roughly 15 minutes from campus. Ohio State associate head coach Jake Diebler was his primary recruiter. At Long Island Lutheran, Key was teammates with guard Andre Curbelo, who has played at Illinois and St. John’s and will be at Southern Mississippi this season. Key was selected for a Team USA U-19 camp during the summer of 2021.

Key has a unique story about his first name.

2022-23 season outlook

Key’s injury absence during the final third of last season cracked open a door for understudy Felix Okpara to stake a claim to more playing time. As he started the final nine games, the 6-11 Okpara averaged 5.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game and generally seemed to settle into the expanded role.

It puts Key in an interesting spot entering the season. Without the benefit of a full offseason, Key couldn’t do a whole lot for awhile as he had to focus on rehabilitating his shoulder so he focused on cutting his weight and getting more athletic. Although he’s listed at 250 pounds, down five from last season, Key said he weighed in at 235 to get the preseason underway. Losing that weight has helped him feel quicker and lighter on the court, he said, and the hope is that will allow him to play longer stretches with more energy.

Key wasn’t cleared for full contact until the preseason got underway. That, combined with the weight loss, has made for a few adjustments for Key this year. The good news is that he said the shoulder has held up nicely to resuming battle in the low post.

“It feels great,” he said after Ohio State’s open practice Oct. 19. “Even though it’s a little bit of an adjustment period in the beginning, because obviously I haven’t played this physical of basketball since the end of last year. It’s back. I’m excited to be back out there, full-go every day and play.”

What does that look like for Key this season, though? He came off the bench as Okpara started in the charity exhibition game at Dayton on Oct. 22 and finished with 3 points, four rebounds and a block in 20:54. With Jamison Battle and Devin Royal unavailable for a “secret” scrimmage against Clemson in Nashville six days later, Key started alongside Okpara as the Buckeyes took a lengthy look at attempting to play the two big men together.

It didn’t go very well, and Key did not make a field goal against the Tigers. Although he has worked on his perimeter shooting, and Holtmann has said Key will shoot some 3s again this season, it’s unclear at this point how much he will be able to stretch opposing defenses or guard on the perimeter when playing more of a power forward role.

“I’m excited for that potentially this year,” Key said during the team’s media day in late September. “We have different skill-sets and bring different stuff to the table. It could be a matchup problem for teams, him around the rim, finishing, dunking, lob threat. Even on defense too, we have him as a rim protector, two bigs out there. It should help us a lot this year, having two bigs out there together.”

Having said all that, Key has a proven track record as an effective post player and a well-earned reputation as a physical, effective rebounder. There is a floor to his production, and it’s a decently high one that Ohio State will need in order to be successful this season.

If Key can simply average what he did a season ago, he’ll be among the team’s most impactful players – and among the sport’s most entertaining ones.

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