On Monday, Key could be a bit more transparent about his injury than when he was playing. Although it was clear both by watching the center play and by looking at the stats – 13.4 points on 63.2 percent shooting as well as 8.4 rebounds per game over the first two months of the year and eight points on 42.9 percent shooting and 6.6 rebounds per game after the injury – Key admitted that the shoulder affected him.
“A lot,” Key said when asked how much the injury affected his drop off on the court. “Obviously I'm down in the post, so I use my shoulder a lot to get the defender off my body. I do a lot of jumping, grabbing rebounds, and people going in there and hitting your arms and I use my left hand a lot for the jump hook. So even with the brace on, it definitely affected me a lot because I knew that my shoulder wasn't 100 percent and the shots that were falling in the beginning of the year that I knew I can make, it just wasn't falling.”
While the Buckeyes might not miss an injured Key as much as a healthy one, the major setback of this decision could be heading into next year. Key should be fully recovered from the surgery, but he will miss time during the summer while recovering.
