After dominating career at Belleville West, EJ Liddell adjusting to life in Big Ten
The 2019-20 college basketball season ended far too soon for EJ Liddell and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
A consensus top-40 national recruit after leading Belleville West to back-to-back IHSA Class 4A state championships, the 6-6, 236-pound Buckeyes forward had withstood the sometimes overwhelming highs and lows most freshmen go through while competing nightly in the Big Ten Conference.
And despite a regular-season ending loss at Michigan State, the Buckeyes were heading into the Big Ten Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis playing their best basketball since climbing to third in the AP Top 25 poll in early December following a 9-0 start.
Liddell had done his part as well. A key reserve off coach Chris Holtmann’s bench, Liddell was two games removed from his best performance of the season, a 17-point, 11-rebound effort against Illinois. Like his teammates, Liddell was playing his best basketball as 7th-seeded Ohio State prepared to take on 10th-seeded Purdue in the third of four second round games March 12.
It never happened, however, as, in a 12-hour period, the cornavirus pandemic not only resulted in the suspension of the NBA and NHL seasons, but caused college basketball conference tournaments throughout the nation to be canceled as well as put an end to college basketball’s 2020 version of March Madness.
‘”We had heard that it was going to be canceled. Coach Holtmann was still hoping that it could still be played, but I think we all knew that it wasn’t going to go on,” Liddell recalled this week. “I was really disappointed and hurt because I really thought we were playing our best basketball at that time.
“We had won several games in a row prior to losing at Michigan State. But that was their senior night and nobody was going to beat them that night. But, had we beaten Purdue, we were going to play Michigan State on a neutral floor in the quarterfinals and I think we may have gotten them.”
Two days later, instead of playing in the conference semifinals, Liddell returned to Belleville. On May 7, Liddell took the last final exam of his freshman year, still at home in Belleville, as the nation continues its fight against COVID-19.
One of the best ever
Liddell entered Ohio State last August following one of the best high school athletic careers in metro-east sports history.
A key member of the Maroons since scoring 19 points early in his freshman year against Ladue at the Vianney Tournament, Liddell ultimately became a three-time Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and two-time Associated Press first-team all-state selection.
A four-time all-Southwestern Conference pick, Liddell ended his high school career as the Maroons all-time leader in points (2,508), games (128), blocks (500) and rebounds (1,004).
But most of all, Liddell was a winner at Belleville West. The Maroons compiled a record of 100-28 in Liddell’s four years, culminating with the back-to-back state championships in 2018 and 2019. Following his senior year, Liddell joined former Chicago Simeon and Duke University standout Jabari Parker as the only two-time winners of Illinois Mr. Basketball.
Last spring, Liddell was named to the Chicago Sun-Times all-decade team.
But after joining Ohio State as part of one of the top college recruiting classes in the nation — a class which included high school All-Americans DJ Carton and Alonzo Gaffney — Liddell was just one of many talented players on one of the country’s top teams.
“The biggest adjustment for me at Ohio State? It was just learning to play my role,” Liddell said. “All four years of high school, and even before that, I was the best player on my team.
“Going to Ohio State I was on a team with guys who were just as good, some of them of who had been around the college game for a long time. I just had to adjust to my role, which was to do what they needed me to help them win when I got into the game. It was just a matter of me being a great teammate and cheering my teammates on when something was going on.”
Learning to come off the bench, Liddell was a big part of the Buckeyes early season success. Fitting nicely into Holtmann’s system, Liddell, playing in his first nationally televised big time game, scored 12 points and added five rebounds in a 74-49 win at national power North Carolina in November.
Liddell then added a 9-point, 5-rebound effort in a six-point win over Kentucky in December. Playing an average of 19 minutes per game, Liddell finished his freshman season averaging 6.7 points and 3.8 rebounds, while shooting over 46% from the field.
“I really feel I fit into coach Holtmann’s system very well because it’s about versatility, movement and just playing the game of basketball,” Liddell said. “Just go out and play hard, leave it on the floor every night.”
Competing in the Big Ten
After going through a stretch in late December and the first two weeks of January in which they lost six of seven games, the Buckeyes finished strong. A 7-3 record — which included a four-game winning streak in its final 10 games — clinched a bid in the NCAA Tournament and gave Buckeye fans hope of a lengthy postseason stay.
But COVID-19 took care of that.
The late season surge lifted Ohio State to a final mark of 11-9 in the Big Ten.
“The Big Ten is very difficult. You know every night that have to be ready to play because anybody can beat anybody,” Liddell said. “It’s a great league and I knew that going in. You’ve got men in it and you get in that (conference) run, it’s just very hard because every team knows what you can do.
“The toughest part for me was maintaining my strength throughout the season. You would play a tough game one night then come back the next day and go through a hard practice. That was difficult.
“But overall, I am pleased at the progress I made this season. Coach (Holtmann) told me that if I come to practice ready to work hard every day that I would see the progress and I have.”
Liddell’s progress as an athlete and a person over the past year is obvious to those who know him best. Belleville West coach Joe Muniz said Liddell handled adversity and showed tremendous growth both mentally and physically as a high profile athlete in a major college program
“I am super proud of how EJ played this past season. He got better and better as the season went along and he was playing his best basketball at the end of the season,” Muniz said. “EJ has had tremendous growth both mentally and physically during this past year. This year was not an easy year for EJ. He had to learn to deal with failure. That was something he didn’t really have to worry about during his high school career at West, but I felt he matured and showed how tough he really is by the way he handled the adversity.
“He just kept working on getting better. He did not put his head down and feel sorry for himself. He just kept playing. He showed why he is such a special person and player. This is not an easy thing to adjust to as a 19-year-old kid away from home for the first time. I thought he did a tremendous job in dealing with that this year.”
The future for Liddell
After finishing up classes last week, Liddell is continuing to work out at home. He is running and working on his conditioning several times a week and, as restrictions surrounding COVID-19 ease, he will begin to increase his workouts.
Liddell hopes to return to Columbus to begin working out with teammates in June. Until then he is enjoying spending time with his family and keeping close tabs with his Belleville West teammates.
“I stay in touch with all my teammates and coaches at Belleville West. That’s where it all began for me,” Liddell said. “I am also enjoying being home with my family. Everybody is doing well and we’ve become even closer. I get a little bored at times and I’m anxious to get back to basketball. I really miss it.”
Liddell is majoring in communications at Ohio State. But the ultimate goal is to one day play in the NBA.
“I don’t know when that is going to be,” he said. “I just pray that the amount of work I put in shows I can play in the NBA one day.”
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
