In honor of the NCAA Tournament, the Ohio State football media team asked several Buckeyes to name their squad's starting five basketball players. Before he became a quarterback at Ohio State, Kienholz was a three-sport standout at T.F. Riggs High School in Pierre, South Dakota, and was an all-state honoree in football, basketball and baseball. In his senior basketball season, Kienholz averaged 19.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per contest.
The 6-foot-3, 207-pound athlete also had several dunks that went viral on social media. A Massillon, Ohio, native, Ballard stood out as much on the basketball court as he did on the football field at Massillon Washington High School. Before he enrolled at Ohio State in January 2021, Ballard averaged 17.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in nine appearances for the Tigers. "Jayden's different," Massillon basketball coach Josh Hose told Chris Easterling of The Independent three years ago."He's a different dude.