Unique Zed Key brings flavor to Ohio State basketball
The words were printed on a one-of-its-kind T-shirt and shipped to Zed Key.
It was near the midway point of Key’s sophomore season at Ohio State when coach Chris Holtmann, in a segment on the Big Ten Network’s “The Journey,” tried to sum up the personality of his 6-8, 255-pound center. What he arrived at was equal parts simplistic and thorough.
“He’s the most interesting man in college basketball,” Holtmann said.
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Really, how else could he describe the big man? A proud owner of a ball python, a fixer of cars and the team’s do-it-all handyman, Key enjoys a well-rounded lifestyle away from the court. In uniform, he celebrates dunks by raising the roof as he heads back upcourt and three-point plays by firing what have become his patented “finger guns.”
To commemorate that, local clothing line Homage sent him a shirt as the preseason began with Holtmann’s slogan emblazoned across the chest. Much like the man himself, just one exists.
“I do a lot outside of basketball,” Key said. “I like cars. I’m really mechanically inclined. I put up TVs in my teammates’ apartments sometimes. I do a lot. You don’t see a lot of other basketball players doing that.
“And I hoop, also.”
Zed Key’s Ohio State teammates share their favorite stories
If you ask around the Ohio State program, you’ll find that everybody has a favorite Key story and none of them overlap with each other.
It doesn’t matter how long they’ve been in the program, either. Tanner Holden, a Wright State transfer in his first season with the Buckeyes, reflected back to Ohio State’s summer trip to the Bahamas for a pair of exhibition games and the team’s stay at the Atlantis resort.
After dinner one night, the Buckeyes were going to walk to the beach and hang out and had to navigate around one of the resort’s 11 pools when Key had a different idea. Not a better idea, but a different one.
“The whole team walks around the pool and Zed wanted to take a shortcut through a 3-foot pool, and in the middle, it got to like 6 feet,” Holden said. “So Zed starts walking and, of course, he thinks he’s macho man, he just wanted to keep walking. So he got from (his chest) down soaked, thinking he was gonna beat us to the other side, and he never did.”
Holden had known Key for a few months at that point. But ever since Key arrived at Ohio State during the summer of 2020, he has never needed much time before making an impression on his teammates. Within a few weeks of his arrival, teammate Seth Towns was walking into a library on High Street when he saw Key driving by in his Volkswagen.
It was the start of a long day.
“As I was coming out, I saw his car driving the opposite direction,” Towns said. “And then, I went to the McDonald’s across the street for a while, came out and saw his car again. He was on High Street for, like, six hours. It was insane.
“I mean, that was the first couple weeks. I was like, ‘We’ve got one here.’ He was on High Street for six hours doing God knows (what).”
His love for cars has been well established. Key’s current ride is a Lincoln low-rider that he had to take to Cincinnati for a few weeks to finish some upgrades (including hydraulics) he couldn’t perform without his own welder. He has performed repairs on teammates’ cars, hung televisions in their apartments and used lessons learned from his dad’s home theater installation company to benefit the Buckeyes.
His affinity for automobiles came at a young age and, like this name, was inherited. Key’s dad, Zed Sr., was given the name by his father, Willie, for reasons that have been lost to time. Somehow, Willie was given the nickname “Zedwood” in homage to the cartoon character Dagwood, and from there it morphed into Zed for the next two generations.
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Zed Key’s snake has its own Instagram; divides teammates
Then there’s the snake. Named 7, the ball python has his own Instagram page and is a polarizing figure for Key’s teammates. Last year, E.J. Liddell said he was fine with being in the same apartment as 7 – provided he remained in his cage. This year, freshman center Felix Okpara felt differently.
“When I came over to his room, I forgot he had a snake,” Okpara said. “He scared me with the snake. I was so pissed. I was about to kill the snake. Since then, every time I go to his room or his house, I have to make sure the snake is in the cage.”
Sometimes, though, it’s not about the specific moments as it is simply Key’s overall personality that endears him to teammates. Sixth-year graduate forward Justice Sueing said that his favorite memories are just of Key being himself. Fifth-year Oklahoma State transfer Isaac Likekele said Key often cheers him up simply by being himself.
“He got a natural light about himself,” Likekele said. “Some days whenever I’m feeling down, Zed doesn’t even know it but he ends up getting me energized, brightening up my day just by being him.”
On the court, Ohio State looking for bigger year from Zed Key
Of the teammates surveyed for this story, one had an on-court moment immediately come to mind. Gene Brown III, a fellow member of Key’s 2020 recruiting class, flashed back to Ohio State’s upset of No. 1 Duke on Nov. 30, 2021.
Key was monumental in the win, scoring a game- and career-high 20 points against the Blue Devils.
“I think the Duke game, just the way he played in that high-level competition,” Brown said. “It shocked me, because I knew Zed could play, but he really showed up that day, and we needed it.”
Key averaged 7.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game during his sophomore year, his first season as a starter. This year, he’s expected to step into a more significant role that will include shooting a few 3-pointers per game.
The drive to improve led Key to drop roughly 10 pounds from his listed weight of 255 to help with conditioning. One of only two players to see action in more than two games for the Buckeyes last season, Key’s teammates voted him one of three team captains.
The NBA is a goal for Key, but he is also able to mentally recharge by pursuing his passions outside of basketball. The Ohio State media guide describes Key as “one of the most NIL-savvy players on the team,” and Holtmann said Key is a meticulous planner able to balance team demands with his other endeavors.
“Hooping is the main thing, but some days you’ve got to take your mind off of basketball and do other things,” Key said. “The season is stressful. It’s grueling, so to have your mind do something else is good.”
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That approach is one that Holtmann said he feels will take Key far in life, whether that involves a ball and a hoop or not.
“So much of what we do is we’re coaching kids and we’re talking about the next step beyond college and the NBA, and while Zed wants to play professionally, if he’s got a free 4-5 hours, he’s gonna be at a car dealership trying to swap one of his cars, or he’s going to be working on one of his cars,” the coach said. “He’s very much got an entrepreneurial spirit. I just think he’s interesting.”
One more question looms, then: Would the coach allow “the most interesting man in college basketball” to hang a television in his house or fix his car’s engine?
“I’d let him do both for sure,” Holtmann said. “I would not ride in his low rider that he’s got right now with him, but I would definitely let Zed fix my car or anything in my house.”
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