This afternoon, Chris Holtmann will get the first real taste for his first Ohio State team. The rest of us will have to wait another week, when the Buckeyes will host the College of Wooster for an exhibition game Nov. 5 at Value City Arena.

But first, Ohio State will face Xavier today in a closed-door scrimmage that will see the Buckeyes take to the road to finally face a new foe after weeks of practicing against each other. Reporters and fans are not allowed to be present for the scrimmage, per NCAA rules.

If they were, though, here are a few questions we’d like to start getting some answers on regarding this year’s Ohio State team.

1. Who will start at center?

Holtmann told me at Big Ten media day a week and a half ago that he is likely to have multiple starting lineups throughout the season, and I’ll have a story on the lineup situation sometime this week. Given that, though, there’s a few guys you can absolutely write in: Holtmann has pegged Keita Bates-Diop, Jae’Sean Tate and recently C.J. Jackson as likely starters.

I’d wager Kam Williams is the fourth starter, which leaves us a big question: who’s the go-to big man? Last year, Micah Potter outworked Trevor Thompson in fall camp and won a starting spot as a true freshman. This year, he’s being pushed by freshman Kaleb Wesson, who is more of a true post player than Potter, who ideally would play at power forward.

Given how this roster is constructed, though, one of those two guys will be the starting center. Who’s it going to be?

2. How is Tate’s handle?

The depth chart at the guard positions is thin, and at point guard it’s nearly nonexistent. Jackson is the incumbent after taking over for JaQuan Lyle last season, and after that graduate transfer Andrew Dakich is the most experienced point guard – and he’s coming off a redshirt season and four years at Michigan that started with him as a walk-on.

As a result, Tate is being asked to shoulder some of the point guard duties this year and enters the final stretch of camp as the clear-cut No. 2 option behind Jackson. Williams spent much of the summer working on his ball handling but is sticking with shooting guard, the position where his coaches feel he can be most impactful.

It’s been made clear that the Buckeyes aren’t going to ask Tate to become a floor general and simply need him to help initiate the offense, but it’s going to be an adjustment for one of the Big Ten’s most-skilled undersized players on the block. How well he acquits himself against a top-15 Xavier team will be a good barometer for the Buckeyes.

3. Which freshman has the biggest impact?

Wesson will almost certainly play a significant role on this year’s team and looks positioned to be a future star, provided he can keep his conditioning at a high level. What is more interesting is where the other two freshmen – Musa Jallow and Kyle Young – will fit into the rotation this year. Young is the higher-ranked prospect of the two, but if there’s a position where the Buckeyes have depth, it’s at forward, which could limit his opportunities.

Jallow was singled out by Holtmann on Saturday for having been a positive surprise for the Buckeyes during this preseason in spite of being only 17 years old, and Tate has told me that the freshman has led the team in offensive rebounding this preseason.

There are more opportunities for Jallow due to the state of the depth chart, which means he could work his way into a significant role.

4. How healthy is everyone?

When the Buckeyes held an open practice Saturday before the football game against Penn State, everyone was fully active for a session that was all drills and conditioning but no full-on scrimmaging. The scrimmage will be a good test to see how several players are coming along after being slowed by various ailments during the last few months.

Holtmann lauded Andre Wesson’s conditioning since missing the entire summer with an undisclosed medical condition, and he’s getting back to full strength. Young missed time after having his tonsils removed, while Bates-Diop banged knees with a player and Kaleb Wesson rolled an ankle during the preseason.

All should be good to go, but this will be a big test.

5. How does this team handle adversity?

We saw in the last two years how Ohio State typically handled things when an opponent put it under duress. Holtmann has said multiple Big Ten coaches have told him that the Buckeyes weren’t up to their usual standards of toughness in recent seasons and that they would have a tendency to fall apart rather than pull together when times got tough.

There will be tough times today. And while one scrimmage does not a season make, it would be interesting to see how the Buckeyes answer when the Musketeers put together a run or start to really put stress on them.

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy