The text message Chris Holtmann went to bed hoping to receive popped up on his phone at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The opening game between Ohio State and Illinois State, he learned, was a go. All Buckeyes and Redbirds personnel had tested negative for coronavirus, allowing them to tip off the 2020-21 basketball season in front of an almost entirely empty Schottenstein Center.
Ohio State’s seemingly never-ending wait to get back onto the court had, in fact, ended. Holtmann’s confirmation mattered to few people more than Justice Sueing, a 6-foot-7 redshirt junior forward.
He transferred to play his final two years of college basketball with the Buckeyes on May 10, 2019.