Colby Baumann is No. 15 in our Ohio State men’s basketball preseason power rankings

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 weekday 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 gets underway today with second-year walk-on guard Colby Baumann.

No. 15 – Colby Baumann

Position: Guard

Eligibility: Second year (two remaining)

Height/weight: 6 feet 3 / 190 pounds

Jersey number: 42

Major: Exploration

Background

Baumann played for Atascocita High School in Humble, Texas, but transferred to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for his senior season. With hopes of drawing some recruiting interest, Baumann suffered a shattered wrist that cost him the season and led to a post-graduate year. It was then he was contacted by Ohio State assistant coach Mike Netti, who expressed interest in bringing Baumann in as a walk-on to help fill out the depth chart in practice.

Baumann announced his commitment to Ohio State on June 13, 2022, with a graphic he posted to his Twitter account.

2022-23 season recap

The final player off the bench, Baumann’s first season of college basketball did not amount to much playing time. He made his debut with 2:33 left in a season-opening win against Robert Morris on Nov. 7, replacing Roddy Gayle Jr. with Ohio State ahead 89-51. He grabbed an offensive rebound with 18 seconds left for his first official statistic, and he would appear in two more games to total 5:58 of playing time for the year.

Baumann was the lone player not to score for the Buckeyes, but he did not record a “Trillion,” either. He missed two field goals, one from inside the 3-point arc and one from beyond, and had three rebounds, one assist and one turnover.

Need to know

While back home in Texas during the summer, Baumann and a friend made the decision to sign up and run a Spartan Race. He finished seventh overall and has plans to do more in the future. Baumann has a clothing line that raises funds to support cancer research after his father battled brain cancer for six months before passing away in 2017. It’s named after his dad and called LLP Clothing, which stands for “Live Like Phil.”

“Creating the clothing line, my main message was really to figure out a way for everybody to remember my dad,” Baumann said.

During the summer, he also attended a flying school for one day and got to help fly a plane.

An exploration major, Baumann has said he hopes having lived in Texas, Florida and now Ohio will help him branch out to more regions of the country as he plans to earn a degree in business marketing and own his own business one day.

Prior to his arrival at Ohio State, Baumann said he was already familiar with Brice Sensabaugh after hearing about his senior season at Orlando Lake Highland Prep. He’s a fan of Kobe Bryant. Baumann can surf and play the ukulele. He played in the Kingdom Summer League during the summer of 2022 and was teammates with Kalen Etzler.

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2023-24 season outlook

On a roster with 15 players, 13 of whom are on scholarship, Baumann is targeted for another season of scout team work. As his Spartan Race exploits prove, he’s a tough, physical player who will bring that dimension into practice and help provide competition against Ohio State’s scholarship players.

But with five scholarship guards on the roster, and a few wings who can also help out in the backcourt, Baumann is ticketed for a second year of putting in work away from the bright lights of gameday.

Additional reading

Colby Baumann: No. 14 in the 2022-23 power rankings

Colby Baumann participates in Kingdom Summer League

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State Buckeyes power rankings: No. 15 Colby Baumann