To the issues of the day….Chris Holtmann didn’t recruit, or develop, on par with programs like Purdue, or even Nebraska. In part, it cost him his job. (Press Pros File Photos)
Lots of reasons were factors in Ohio State’s firing of men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann. And the added pressures of the NIL era didn’t help his cause.
The list is long and possibly debatable (if you’re the silver-lining type) on every point for reasons why Ohio State fired Chris Holtmann.
The demands and big money of the name, image and likeness era have everything to do with it, but let’s look first at the concrete reasons that built a wall Holtmann couldn’t knock down or climb over. A wall that no amount of NIL money could penetrate as long as Holtmann sat on that wall.
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Bottom line: Holtmann didn’t win enough. He didn’t make enough NCAA Tournaments, and when he did, his teams went nowhere. No argument there.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
But why? In a word, if it is in fact a word, Holtmann under-recruited. He never got the Butler-kind-of-players out of his blood. Many top-100 recruits who didn’t blossom and went elsewhere looked like projects from the first time we saw them play. Far too many were not ready for the Big Ten. Projects, unless they are 7-foot-4, weigh 300 pounds and go by the name of Zach Edey, don’t make it in the Big Ten.
Holtmann didn’t recruit high school players well enough. He got some good ones, but he got a lot who were supposed to make far more impact on the floor than they did on their cushioned, court-side seats. Or they transferred to lower-level programs because they were over-recruited.
He didn’t master the transfer portal. Some contributors, but no substantial difference-makers there.
A Holtmann roster never made me think they could win the Big Ten or make a Final Four run. His roster construction was like a job site that can’t get up to code and keeps failing inspections. Coaches can’t build a winning and tournament-ready program when NBA talent rarely passes through. And when a player like Malaki Branham gives hope for the future, he turns pro after one year. What’s the point in staying for an early tournament exit at best?
Player development? E.J. Liddell got a lot better at Ohio State. But far too many of Holtmann’s recruits required major development that didn’t materialize. When no one other than Liddell quickly pops to mind, you have a development problem.
The left hand, the right hand…and too many times where they weren’t together.
This year’s team lacks an obvious NBA player. Holtmann built it around perimeter scorers. The trifecta of Bruce Thornton, Jamison Battle and Roddy Gayle Jr. worked for a while. But when that’s the extent of dependable offense and your bigs are a 6-11 Felix Okpara, who you can’t run plays for, and an undersized Zed Key, who is not a go-to scorer, you have problems. Defensive stoppers like Evan Mahaffey are nice roster pieces, but they shouldn’t be starters.
Debate the merits of Holtmann’s in-game coaching prowess all you want. I’ve never thought he was an adjustment guy. It always feels like his opponents adjust more to his strategies than he adjusts to theirs. And once every opponent realized how to limit this year’s team from scoring, the losing streak started.
You may ask, why not give Holtmann more time? Doesn’t every program endure a couple off years now and then?
Legitimate questions in another era. Legitimate questions at lower-profile institutions. But this is the NIL era. College is the home of semi-pro sports. Patience is gone, especially in leagues like the Big Ten and at universities like Ohio State.
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If patience was a virtue to be lauded in big-time college sports, football coach Ryan Day wouldn’t have been so busy in January. But 11-2 football seasons aren’t remotely good enough in this age at this university.
More people have more money at stake. What good is an NIL deal with a player on a bad team? Not much. If you thought boosters exercised great influence over college athletic programs before, the will to influence decisions is greater than ever. And there are bags of money available to make college athletes wealthy endorsers.
Holtmann’s lackluster tenure didn’t kill the Ohio State basketball program. But the empty seats all over Value City Arena certainly won’t encourage NIL donors and sponsors to support the program.
When the only way to fill the arena is with a concert, or Caitlin Clark and the Iowa women’s basketball team, change at the top is necessary and overdue. Yes, you could forgive no sellouts in the cavernous confines of the Schottenstein Center. But most nights they could close off the upper arena and still have empty seats in the lower half. Holtmann’s teams managed to make thousands not care.
Holtmann left Ohio State on Valentine’s Day with a sweetheart buyout deal of $17.5 million because of the unnecessary contract extension he got from outgoing athletic director Gene Smith. But much like the program he led, Holtmann’s name, image and likeness aren’t worth anything now.
And neither are the future NIL opportunities for future Ohio State basketball players unless incoming AD Ross Bjork makes a great hire. He’s really the boss now, and this hire will be on him.
Then it will be on the new coach. His job will be to win and, just as importantly, make the money people happy and believing they are getting a return on their investment in the Ohio State basketball program.
That’s the new asking price of success.
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