COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Keita Bates-Diop watched film, and he read.

There's not much else you can do while recovering from surgery as the basketball season passes you by. The Buckeyes struggled last year. Bates-Diop sat on the bench. He thought about how he could have made a difference in a season that featured seven losses by five or fewer points. Some were heartbreaking.

Then he watched more film, and he read.

Now he's playing basketball again.

Cleared in June after surgery in January for a stress fracture in his left leg, Bates-Diop is again setting out on a season eager to prove that he can reach his potential. His ability to do so could make or break Ohio State's season.

"It would have been a much different year, team-wise, a much different year," Bates-Diop said. "That's what I was thinking about the whole time I was out. I wish I could be out there, help on that defensive play, I know with my length I could've got that steal or that block. That's what I thought about all year, and now I'm trying to carry it over into this season.

"Things happen. That's out of my control. But I'm looking forward to the future now."

You've read some version of this story before. OK, now's the time that Bates-Diop is going to put it all together? He has to.

The jump he expected to make after a sophomore season in which he averaged 11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds never happened. Instead he was limited to nine games as a junior when a stress fracture suffered in the offseason never healed right and eventually required surgery.

You could see it affecting him last year. No explosion. No lift on his jump shot. A step slow on defense. Pile that on top of missing the final two games of his sophomore season due to mono, and it's been a while since we've seen a healthy Bates-Diop.

What does that look like again?

"A pro," teammate Jae'Sean Tate said. "That guy is unstoppable. When he's on, there's not much even I can do, and I would call myself a pretty good defender."

That word -- "pro" -- has been cautiously tossed into the conversation about Bates-Diop since he arrived. He was the No. 29 player in the country when he was signed in 2014. He's 6-foot-7 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, can guard multiple positions, shoot and handle the ball. That's an NBA skill set.

But even saying the words NBA in relation to Bates-Diop now feels like getting way out front of a player who has to prove he can stay healthy, and then be the alpha who carries an undermanned team to something beyond the losing season that everyone is expecting.

Maybe the books Bates-Diop was reading will help. He noted two of his favorites.

One is called "Ego is the Enemy" by Ryan Holiday. Bates-Diop doesn't appear to have much of an ego, but maybe he's finally starting to realize how good he is, and is trying to keep himself grounded.

The other is a book by Mark Manson called "The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F---". The Buckeyes would love it if that guy showed up. A Bates-Diop free from hesitancy and timidness can be a special player.

That's been the biggest knock. When healthy, Bates-Diop would give you 22 and 10 one night, and then score six the next. He never looked disengaged like some others over the last few years, but he lacked the killer instinct to be a go-to guy every night.

He felt he was ready to assume that role last year, but never really got the chance.

"We have to let him grow into that, and prove it really. Prove what he's capable of," new head coach Chris Holtmann said. "You look at his body and his frame, he can move well enough to guard people. I think we need to let him prove what he can. Any time you take that amount of time off, there's gonna be some rust that he has to shake off. I think our people need to be patient and understanding."

Holtmann has not shied away from pinning whatever success the team can muster on Bates-Diop's shoulders, as well as those of fellow fourth-year players Tate and Kam Williams. The Buckeyes will need all three at their best.

We've also seen Tate and Williams at their best. Tate is a bulldog forward who will defend, rebound, score in the paint and carry the team emotionally. Williams is best utilized as a spot-up shooter off the bench, the guy who led the Big Ten in 3-point shooting two years ago.

We still haven't seen the best of Bates-Diop. The ceiling is high.

"I always thought Keita was a pro," Tate said. "I committed the same day as him because I wanted to play with him. You guys haven't seen a healthy Keita. I wish you could. This year you guys are gonna be very impressed. That guy is a pro."

There's a lot of ground to cover between the player Bates-Diop has been, and the pro his teammates say they've seen in workouts.

There's no question that his presence last year would have helped, and maybe in the end propelled Ohio State to a couple more wins that could've meant another NCAA Tournament berth. But that wouldn't have been carrying the team. That would've been hovering near the top with players averaging between 11-14 points per game.

This team needs a star. The only player on the roster capable of being that is Bates-Diop.

He knows what that requires.

"The full potential reached," he said. "I didn't play a whole lot my freshman year. I kinda started to come out my sophomore year, had a solid individual season. I didn't get the chance to take another leap from my sophomore to junior year. That's what I'm hoping to do now this year."

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