The Big Ten announces its all-conference teams on Monday

The Big Ten announced its all-conference team on Monday afternoon, and one member of the Ohio State hoops team made the list. Forward Kaleb Wesson was named an All-Big Ten second team selection. The 6-foot-9, 270-pound big man led the Buckeyes in points this season, averaging 14 per game, while also pacing the team in rebounds at 9.3 per game.

The junior posted a whopping 11 double-doubles on the year, and will look to continue to put up big numbers for OSU as they advance into the Big Ten Tournament and later the NCAA Tournament.

Unsurprisingly, Iowa’s Luka Garza was named the Big Ten Player of the Year after averaging a conference-high 23.9 points per game. The next highest-scoring player in the B1G was Daniel Oturu, who joined Wesson on the All-Big Ten second team.

The conference is absolutely stacked this season, and all the big names on both the first and second teams make that very apparent. Joining Garza on the All-Big Ten first team are Michigan State’s Cassius Winston, Illinois’ Ayo Dosunmu, Penn State’s Lamar Stevens, and Maryland’s Anthony Cowan Jr. and Jalen Smith.

Another Terrapin, guard Aaron Wiggins, was named Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year and Spartan forward Xavier Tillman was named B1G Defensive Player of the Year. The Illini’s Kofi Cockburn earned B1G Freshman of the Year honors.

When you're a school that plays at the highest level like Ohio State, you produce not only the best players in the country, but also some of the best assistant coaches. As we saw this past year with the departure of Jeff Hafley, a productive season or two with the Buckeyes can open a ton of doors for bigger jobs at other schools. While you can’t blame assistants for leaving to become head coaches elsewhere, the one thing you can do is make it more enticing to stick around.

Gene Smith hasn’t historically been an athletic director all that keen on dumping a boatload of money towards Ohio State’s assistant coaches. However, with college football being a rapidly growing financial arms race, it has all but forced his hand into opening up the checkbook just a bit wider, resulting in four assistant coaches reaching deals of over $1 million.

The school announced the new salaries for all of its assistant coaches on Monday, with all of those previously on staff getting pay raises as a result of a great 2019 campaign that fell just short of a national title. The biggest raise of them all was offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, who jumped from $950,000 a season ago to $1.2 million moving forward. Kerry Coombs, the newest addition to the staff but a familiar face on campus, is the highest paid Buckeye assistant at $1.4 million annually as the defensive coordinator.

Wilson’s salary bump is a clear indication of how Ryan Day feels about his right hand man on the offensive side of the ball. While the head coach gets most of the credit for the team’s production on that end, the two have worked together to put together a system that has thrived in Columbus, and Wilson is obviously important for the team’s plans moving forward.

In addition to the OC’s raise, the Buckeyes notably gave out multiple two-year deals in an attempt to provide job security for its assistants. Special teams coordinator Matt Barnes, QB coach Corey Dennis, wide receivers coach Brian Hartline, D-line coach Larry Johnson, and OL coach Greg Studrawa as well as Coombs and Wilson are all signed through the 2022 season.

In other Ohio State hoops news, the team is still unsure of the status of forward Kyle Young. Having missed the Buckeyes’ last four games after suffering an ankle injury in the first half of the win over Maryland on Feb. 23, Chris Holtmann told the media on Monday that he will not be holding the junior out of the Big Ten Tournament, and that if he is indeed ready to go by Thursday then he will play.

Holtmann’s squad has actually been able to pick up the slack despite being incredibly shorthanded. Besides missing just Young, the team has been without freshman point guard D.J. Carton for quite some time now as he continues his leave of absence to focus on mental health issues. Alonzo Gaffney also hasn’t played in a game for Ohio State since Feb. 20, and after missing a few games with what was called an “illness” did not make the trip to East Lansing, with Holtmann declining to comment on the specifics.

Even with only eight healthy scholarship players available, the Buckeyes have managed to win four of their last five games, including huge wins over No. 7 Maryland, No. 19 Michigan and No. 23 Illinois. They would lose their last game of the year to Michigan State, finishing the regular season at No. 19 in the AP Poll and earning the No. 7 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, where they will face-off with Purdue this Thursday. If they manage to advance, they will get another date with the Spartans on Friday.

Just in case you're really missing football season, here is a really cool video of running back J.K. Dobbins breaking down some of his game film as he prepares for the NFL Draft.

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