Oller: A look at the 'Rise and Fall' of former Ohio State basketball coach Chris Holtmann
Chris Holtmann is gone but not forgotten, his tenure still fresh enough for dissection until Ohio State men's basketball hires his permanent replacement, at which point his career arc will join the coaching biographies of his predecessors.
After an erratic seven years with the Buckeyes, the positive and negative takeaways from Holtmann’s time in Columbus are in the eye of the beholder.
This beholder watched Holtmann arrive from Butler University in 2017 as an up-and-comer who had taken the Bulldogs to the Sweet Sixteen the previous season. I wrote about the excitement of those early days, of the anticipation that initially was satisfied by overachieving teams that played hard and smart.
The middle days were muddled, in part because COVID cast a long shadow over sports. I wrote about those, too.
I also opined about the latter days of frustration that led to finality; Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith fired Holtmann Feb. 14. The final win-loss tally: 137-86, a .614 winning percentage that ranks behind Thad Matta (.733) and Fred Taylor (.653) but ahead of Jim O’Brien (.602), Eldon Miller (.592), Gary Williams (.590) and Randy Ayers (.534.)
Instead of relying on a typical coaching timeline to tell Holtmann’s story, I thought an interesting alternative would be to use excerpts from my past columns that peered into each phase of his career, a kind of “Rise and Fall of Chris Holtmann” in real time. Looking back, I see where I was on target with what I wrote – can anybody on this team shoot? – and where I missed the mark; I thought Holt would take the Buckeyes deeper into the NCAA Tournament than he did.
But the point here is not to pat myself on the back for being right or to make fun of myself where I was wrong. It's to provide an inside look at what people, including Holtmann, were thinking and feeling during the good times and bad.
Holtmann was hired June 9, 2017 to fix a program that had become broken under Matta, who remains the winningest coach in program history, proving even the best sometimes can bottom out.
Ohio State hires Chris Holtmann
(Excerpts appear in italics; they have been lightly edited for context and clarity)
I asked Smith if the goal is to become the Ohio State football of basketball by taking up what seems like permanent residence in the Final Four.
"God, no," he said, emphatically, adding that comparing Ohio State to other programs misses the point. "We're talking about where we should be."
Which is?
"We win the Big Ten every year or are in the hunt every year for the Big Ten," Smith said, explaining that consistently competing for conference titles accomplishes the goal of making the NCAA tourney.
Holtmann also was tasked with toughening the non-conference schedule, to appease fans wanting more bang for their buck.
Scheduling more of the elites would be a step forward, especially for season-ticket holders who have grown tired of paying big bucks to sit through wins – and more recently losses – to the Jackson States of this world.
Ultimately, Ohio State turned to Holtmann, a 45-year-old native of Kentucky who fairly resembles the OSU coach who preceded him. And that's a good thing, because any time you are compared favorably with Matta, you must be doing something right.
“He is a great guy. I mean a great guy. And a relentless recruiter,“ said Dan Dakich, who also hosts a sports radio show from Indianapolis. “He has everything you want in a coach. Great contacts and great common sense. The three guys I've always mentioned I am the most impressed with are Brad Stevens, Shaka Smart and Holtmann."
I like Holtmann, too. He is what the Ohio State program needed. Given time – a minimum of two seasons – the former guard at Taylor University in Indiana will bring the Buckeyes back to prominence. Some guys just have it. Holtmann is one of them.”
Am I eating my words now? Not really. At the time, Holtmann checked most boxes, including bringing needed enthusiasm and getting games with North Carolina, Duke, Syracuse, Villanova, UCLA, Kentucky, Xavier and most especially Cincinnati, whom OSU had not played in the regular season since 1921.
During his first season, Holtmann showed he was the right guy at the right moment, taking Matta’s recruits and revitalizing them into a team that won 25 games (after winning 17 the prior year) and finished second in the Big Ten.
Plus, Holtmann was clean. His new AD liked that.
(Smith) slept better with Matta at the helm, knowing the coach would not sacrifice integrity for talent. He feels the same way about Holtmann.
"You have to empower your coaches to walk away from (trouble)," Smith said. "There are a lot of great players out there, but if there are issues around them, I don't care how good he is. Walk."
Holtmann, like Matta, played by the rules. The Buckeyes received no major NCAA penalties under either coach.
Ohio State basketball coach watchlist: Could Sean Miller go to Ohio State? See the list of possible Holtmann replacements
In those halcyon days for Holtmann, I wrote:
So far, the new coach is pushing all the right buttons. The improvement process began the moment Holtmann came aboard. Almost immediately, current and former players noticed how the new coaching staff, which includes assistants Ryan Pedon, Terry Johnson and Mike Schrage, brought energy and fresh enthusiasm.
Holtmann never matched Matta’s recruiting coup of landing first-round NBA draft picks Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Daequan Cook in the same class. But Holtmann recruited Ohio well, at least based on rankings.
Holtmann hit a home run early when Kyle Young decommitted from Butler to follow him to Columbus. Securing Young fulfills a vow by Holtmann to sign more Ohio recruits, something that Matta took heat for in the latter stages of his career.
In hindsight, not even a handful of those Ohio recruits made huge impacts. At least not with the Buckeyes.
I wrote this next excerpt Dec. 24, 2017 after unranked OSU lost to No. 5 North Carolina by 14 points:
Chris Holtmann has the Buckeyes playing hard, confident and in sync. A year ago, Ohio State would have lost this game by 30 and looked uninterested in doing so. No more. Missing are the slumped shoulders and long stretches of lethargic play that made recent episodes of OSU basketball nearly unwatchable.
Ironic, right? That paragraph could have been written a week ago, after OSU stunned No. 2 Purdue four days after Smith fired Holtmann, and been just as relevant as it was when Holtmann rode to the rescue seven years ago.
Certainly, soft spots exist. The Buckeyes still need a consistent outside shooter, but overall improvement can be seen everywhere.
Who knew those soft spots would never callous over? The Buckeyes still need a consistent outside shooter. I figured Holtmann would have recruited a Jon Diebler-type to fix the problem, but he never got there. The Buckeyes never found or developed an outside sharpshooter, and it cost them.
The danger of putting too much emphasis on any one win came back to bite me more than once. It's easy to get caught up in the grandiosity of the moment, to think a player, coach or team has turned a corner just because fans stormed the court. Such may have been the case on Jan. 7, 2018, when unranked OSU shocked No. 1 Michigan State, 80-64.
It was a don't-trust-your-eyes game, so unexplainable that you rub your knuckles into your orbital sockets to make sure what you're watching is real. Rub eyes. Blink hard. Rub eyes. Yep, real. What a 40-minute moment it was, turning a wait-and-see program into a "just wait, you'll see" team that with each win further proves that the Buckeyes got the right guy in Holtmann.
I was totally on board with Holtmann. And still think he is a quality coach, although I wonder now if the Ohio State job was not the right fit. Was it too big for him? Maybe the wrong conference for him? The Big Ten plays bully ball, but the Buckeyes too often lacked the toughness needed to win the battles. Regardless, Holtmann could do little wrong that first season. Indeed, the honeymoon showed no signs of ending.
This was supposed to be a rebuilding year, but Holtmann has blown by Iowa's Tom Davis (6-0) and Bucky O'Connor (5-0) and Minnesota's O.B. "Ozzie" Cowles (5-0) to become the first men's basketball coach in 95 years to start 7-0 in his debut at a Big Ten school.
Ohio State made the NCAA Tournament that year and met Gonzaga in the second round. The Zags won, but it felt as if the Buckeyes were back.
Holtmann inherited a program in early decay and in his first season cauterized the wound. Next season could be challenging, but Ohio State is on the right track.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few had this to say about Holtmann:
"He's at the highest level of respect I can give a man and a father and a coach. He's the real deal."
See, it wasn't just me with the coach crush.
Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program, and Holtmann was killing it there, too. Ohio State received a commitment from five-star point guard DJ Carton, who chose the Buckeyes over Indiana and Michigan. Carton, rated the No. 2 point guard in the nation by 247Sports, was the second top-30 prospect to pledge, joining five-star small forward Alonzo Gaffney.
These were heady times for Holtmann, probably the peak of his employment, though neither of us knew it.
I wrote this before the 10-1 Buckeyes played UCLA in December of 2018:
John Wooden was 46-14 (.767) his first two seasons at UCLA. Chris Holtmann is 35-10 (.778) in his second season with Ohio State. Just sayin’. I'm being tongue-in-cheek, of course, but …
But … it would not last. The Buckeyes would lose five consecutive games in January, followed by three straight to end the regular season, due largely to the suspension of leading scorer Kaleb Wesson. The five-peat was the first real arching of the eyebrows related to Holtmann's handling of the team. For me, it was like taking a possible break-80 to the 18th hole and finishing with a triple bogey. What just happened? Which was the real me? The first 17 holes or the last one?
The rut that Ohio State finds itself in might well be the norm, not the exception. Without an NBA lock or even prospect on the roster, it is looking like more bumpy terrain ahead.
Problems start to emerge for Holtmann's Buckeyes
Who knew that “ahead” would extend multiple seasons? Losing streaks would become an almost annual albatross around Holtmann’s neck. The 2018 swoon was a sneak peek of coming attractions.
As losses mount, the love affair with this coaching staff will begin to ebb and the comparison game will begin. For the record, Thad Matta lost four games in a row five times in 13 seasons at Ohio State. But he never lost five straight.
Holtmann offered an interesting perspective in the midst of the January losing streak.
"Listen, when you go 12-1 it changes your perspective, the fans' perspective, everybody's expectations," the coach said. "A number of people told me in the offseason, 'You made a critical error winning your first season.' I could rattle off 100 times when … fans on the street said, 'Coach, what are you doing, winning so much your first year?' "
Winning “so much” would become a problem moving forward. The Buckeyes went 20-15 in 2018-19 and defeated Iowa State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but again failed to reach the Sweet 16 after losing to Houston in what would become a recurring theme.
Speaking of themes … from 2019:
If you follow OSU this season – and who are we kidding, in most recent seasons, too – you rarely think a three-point shot is destined to fall. On a comfort level of 1 to 5, with 5 being "That ball absolutely is going in," Ohio State rates a 2½. The Buckeyes do not lack decent outside shooters. Freshman guard Luther Muhammad is shooting 42.3 percent from 3-point range. Senior point guard C.J. Jackson is at 41.2 percent and has a knack for making big shots late in games. Ohio State shoots a respectable 35.8 percent on 3's as a team. What mostly is missing is a collective confidence that someone will step up and make shots every game, not every other game as now seems to be the case.
Inconsistent outside shooting. Losing streaks. And defections of players who had been highly-rated recruits. Cracks were appearing in OSU's foundation. Muhammad would transfer to Arizona State in 2021, following the 2020 departure of Gaffney to the Sun Devils. Carton also transferred out (Marquette) after missing much of the 2019-20 season due to mental health issues. Guard Meechie Johnson Jr. entered the transfer portal in 2022, eventually landing at South Carolina, where he is averaging 13.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and three assists.
It was time to do some soul-searching as a coach. And time to tap the brakes as a columnist, one who previously was convinced Holtmann would lead Ohio State to the promised land.
Pandemic stalls any of Holtmann's momentum
Then COVID arrived in March of 2020, and with it a potential turning point in Holtmann’s career. The Buckeyes were 21-10 in 2019-20, winning four of their last five games, when the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament were canceled due to the pandemic.
If OSU had been able to make a deep run into March, or at least get past the round of 32, Holtmann might have built a reservoir of fan support for the dry times to come. Instead, one year later, after compiling an 18-4 record through Feb. 18 the Buckeyes lost four in a row to limp into the 2020-21 Big Ten Tournament.
That they proceeded to win three straight in the tournament testifies to the up-and-down nature of Holtmann’s teams. Just when they appeared to hit their stride, they went into a slide, only to find their mojo again.
"The challenge for us is we have to find a way to be better in stretches in early conference, in January and February," Holtmann said. "You're going to take some hits, but looking back, that's an area where as a coach I have to figure out how to get us better in those months."
Many of us, probably most of us, still believed.
Holtmann can coach. He'll figure it out.
But he never did. The questions kept coming and answers were hard to come by. Why did the offense stall? Why was it so hard to get players to focus on defense?
Ross Bjork: Ohio State in 'super, super early' stages of hiring new men's basketball coach
After a particularly anemic defensive effort against Michigan in 2022:
The OSU coach stepped in front of every (media) question about his team's ho-hum defense like a 7-foot center taking a charge.
Holt took the blame full on, pouring gasoline on himself and lighting the match. I counted 10 "my faults" after the Michigan loss. Holtmann has too much integrity to toss players under the bus, but by defending his players better than they defended opponents, he put the onus on his deficiencies, not theirs. Commendable, but it came with a cost. The spotlight on his job performance got hotter with each passing failure to win the Big Ten or shock the world in March Madness.
I take that back. Ohio State shocked the basketball world in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Just not the way it wanted.
Be more positive, my wife tells me. Fine. Here goes: Ohio State managed to extend Friday's NCAA Tournament opener to overtime, which is a nice way of saying the gallows trap door failed to open on the first attempt.
But that's as optimistic as it gets, because the condemned were not so lucky on the second attempt, dropping like dead weight before millions of gawking townsfolk whose brackets the Buckeyes had busted.
It was gruesome, not to mention borderline embarrassing. Ohio State became a punchline by losing to Oral Roberts 75-72 in overtime at Mackey Arena on the Purdue campus. Only eight other No. 2 seeds had lost to No. 15s in tournament history. That's not the company OSU wants to keep.
There are excuses and there are explanations. This is the latter. The oft-injured Young did not play against Oral Roberts. Since the ugly loss was a mustard stain on Holtmann’s timeline, it is fair to wonder what would have happened had the power forward been on the floor that night. Young scrapped for points and rebounds like no other Buckeye, which made him one of OSU's most important pieces.
Without him? Oral Roberts went to work.
Every player not named E.J. Liddell and (CJ) Walker operated in a fog, while Holtmann watched as the Golden Eagles beat his players to loose balls. That is on both players and coaches.
One season later, in 2021-22, Ohio State finished 20-12, avoided having a losing streak of more than two games and made the NCAA Tournament. Nice rebound, but Buckeye Nation remained bruised by the Oral Roberts debacle. Maybe if OSU had defeated No. 2 seed Villanova in the second round of the NCAA Tournament that year Holtmann would have recouped some of the capital he had lost, but Nova escaped with a 71-61 win. And then Malaki Branham and E.J. Liddell left for the NBA, as Brice Sensabaugh would do after last season, leaving OSU without a clear-cut future NBA draft pick on the roster.
Ohio State knows how to crack the NCAA Tournament but can't make an omelet once it gets there. The four consecutive trips to March Madness – five if you credit OSU for making the 2020 tournament that was canceled by COVID-19 – deserve a pat on the back. Only 11 other teams have similarly made the past four.
That's good.
But 11 of those 12 teams advanced past the second round at least once over that stretch. The lone exception? Ohio State.
Not so good.
OSU's NCAA Tournament exits, losing streaks pile up
At this point in his OSU tenure, Holtmann was still drawing praise but increasingly being ridiculed. The honeymoon was a distant memory. Fellow coaches came to their friend's defense, but consider the source – coaches circle the wagons for their own. Still, it did not hurt Holt’s cause when Tom Izzo, Jay Wright and Mike Krzyzewski all stood up for him as being an excellent coach and even better person.
Fans were less forgiving. Then last season happened. Fourteen losses in 15 games, including nine “Ls” in a row. Final record: 16-19 overall, 5-15 in the Big Ten, good for 13th place.
Holtmann continues to be haunted by both the success and failure of his predecessor, Thad Matta. Those who love Matta compare Holtmann unfavorably to the first half of Matta's time in Columbus, when he coached OSU to two Final Fours. Those less enamored with Matta compare Holtmann to Matta's final two years (38-29 without an NCAA Tournament appearance).
Another season of missing out on March Madness and finishing with a sub-.500 record would be unacceptable. Even at a football school. Ohio State has the facilities, fan support and NIL money to win 20 games every season.
Clearly, by now the bromance between Holtmann and Buckeye Nation had soured. The relationship suddenly felt like a lyric in a Taylor Swift break-up song. I was not yet ready to give up that 'ship, but it also felt like a stretch that Travis Kelce was walking through that door.
As for Holtmann, last year's 16-19 record probably was an aberration. At least it better have been, because another season like 2022-23 and (Gene) Smith will need to decide if the program has too much young talent, thanks to two strong recruiting classes in a row, to waste it by finishing worse than middle of the pack in the Big Ten.
Fortunately for fans, the pieces are in place … to be buoyant about 2023-24.
So much for buoyancy. After a promising start – OSU was 11-2 through December – this season suddenly went glug, glug, glug. Eight losses in nine games put NCAA Tournament hopes on life support, the low point coming when the Buckeyes blew an 18-point lead in the second half and lost at home to Indiana.
It felt like the last desperate wave of a hand as Holtmann sank below the surface.
The Value City Mausoleum doubled as a makeshift morgue Tuesday night. Cold and lifeless. No body bags or toe tags, but the smell of decay was unmistakable.
The victims? You may assume Ohio State men's basketball and coaching staff, but this program has caused its own demise. How it happened is open for debate. That it happened is not. The true victims are the fans, who after back-to-back seasons of being underwhelmed by the product on the court, and by those doing the coaching, are either dying or already dead to any hope of seeing improvement.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is known as a pre-obituary obituary.
Eight days later, Holtmann was gone, with six regular-season games remaining. What happened next was fun for fans and emotional for OSU’s players and coaching staff. With assistant coach Jake Diebler running the show on an interim basis, the unranked Buckeyes stunned No. 2 Purdue 73-69.
Holtmann had to love it, even if he was not there to experience it. He loves his players. Respects his assistants. Plus, he once was that guy, coaching up a storm to shock No. 1 Michigan State in 2018. He knows how it feels for fans to adore you. And, well, to not.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State basketball coach Chris Holtmann struggled after early wins
