Why did Ohio State fire Chris Holtmann? Basketball coach's record, buyout, more to know

The first major domino of what is expected to be a busy coaching carousel in men’s college basketball fell this week.

And it was Ohio State that pushed it down. The Buckeyes fired coach Chris Holtmann on Wednesday in the middle of his seventh season with the program. It marked a relatively abrupt end of a disappointing tenure that once held so much promise for coach and program alike.

When Ohio State parted ways with Thad Matta, the winningest coach in program history, in June 2017, it turned to Holtmann to try to rectify whatever it was the program had lost in the final years of Matta’s decorated 13-year stint.

REQUIRED READING: Ohio State fires coach Chris Holtmann after seven seasons

At the time he was coming off an excellent run at Butler, where he successfully piloted the program in its early years in the Big East, winning 70 games in three seasons and taking the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament each year he was there. His stint was capped off by a Sweet 16 appearance in 2017.

Seven years later, though, Holtmann is gone and the Buckeyes are again searching for a coach who can once again make the program a consistent threat for Big Ten championships and Final Fours.

Why did Ohio State and outgoing athletic director Gene Smith choose to move on from Holtmann? Here’s what you need to know about Holtmann’s time with the Buckeyes:

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Ohio State statement on Chris Holtmann firing

Shortly after news of Holtmann's firing at Ohio State, Smith issued a statement via a news release commenting on the "change in leadership:"

“I want to express my appreciation toward Chris for the first-class program, and the well-respected program, he has run here at Ohio State,” Smith said. “He and his wife, Lori, are wonderful people. I thank each of them for their seven years here in Columbus and I wish them well.”

Ohio State announced associate head coach Jake Diebler will serve as the interim coach for the rest of the 2023-24 season. The release also claims incoming athletic director Ross Bjork will lead the search for Holtmann's fulltime replacement beginning with the end of the season. Bjork takes over on July 1 but will start March 1 in an interim role.

Chris Holtmann record

Over his not-quite seven full seasons with the Buckeyes, Holtmann’s teams went 137-86 (61.4%). It’s the second-highest win percentage of an Ohio State men’s basketball coach over the past 45 years, behind only Matta. But the trajectory of that tenure provides a clearer picture as to why he was dismissed.

The Buckeyes won 20 games in each of Holtmann’s first five seasons and made the NCAA Tournament each year the event was held. He won 25 games in his first season, an eight-win improvement over Matta’s final team. By his fourth season, Ohio State earned a No. 2 seed to the 2021 NCAA Tournament, its best seed in eight years — but once there, it was stunned in the first round by No. 15 seed Oral Roberts.

That defeat embodied the larger struggles of Holtmann’s teams in the NCAA Tournament: Though the Buckeyes consistently made the 68-team field, they never advanced past the second round. By contrast, they made it at least as far as the Sweet 16 five times under Matta, including Final Four appearances in 2007 and 2012.

By the final years of his stay in Columbus, Holtmann’s teams weren’t even making the tournament. Ohio State finished 16-19 in 2022-23, its first losing season since 2003-04. After Tuesday night’s loss to Wisconsin, his current team was 14-11, giving him a 30-30 mark since the start of the 2022-23 season. With a 4-10 mark in conference games this season, the Buckeyes are second-to-last in the Big Ten, ahead of only their languishing rival, Michigan.

Though his overall record was impressive, Holtmann went just 67-65 in Big Ten play. Even in some of his best years, his teams had a habit of stumbling down the stretch of the season, losing four of its final seven in 2017-18, eight of its final 12 in 2018-19, six of its final nine in 2020-21 and five of its final seven in 2021-22.

The search and the ensuing hire will be a first opportunity for incoming athletic director Ross Bjork, who doesn't officially take over in that role until July 1, but who will begin March 1 as a senior advisor to the athletic director.

Here’s Holtmann’s year-by-year record with the Buckeyes:

• 2017-18: 25-9 (15-3 Big Ten)

• 2018-19: 20-15 (8-12)

• 2019-20: 21-10 (11-9)

• 2020-21: 21-10 (12-8)

• 2021-22: 20-12 (12-8)

• 2022-23: 16-19 (5-15)

• 2023-24: 14-11 (4-10)

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Chris Holtmann buyout, salary

According to USA TODAY’s coaching salary database, Holtmann made $3.5 million last season. That mark ranked him 24th among Division I public schools and seventh in the Big Ten, behind Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Illinois’ Brad Underwood, Maryland’s Kevin Willard, Wisconsin’s Greg Gard, Michigan’s Juwan Howard and Purdue’s Matt Painter.

Ohio State announced that with his firing, Holtmann is owed a buyout of $12.8 million.

How good is the Ohio State basketball job?

Though it’s popularly known as a football school, Ohio State has a proud men’s basketball history and has shown a willingness to invest in the program.

The Buckeyes have 11 Final Fours, the sixth-most of any Division I program, ranking them ahead of the likes of Indiana, Louisville, Syracuse and UConn. Since 1960, they’ve won at least a share of the Big Ten regular season championship 14 times. And, most notably, they have a national championship, which they won in 1960 with a loaded roster led by Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek.

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, Ohio State spent $11.9 million on its men’s basketball program, a budget that ranks it fifth among the Big Ten’s current 14 members, behind only Indiana, Michigan State, Illinois and Maryland.

For certain coaches, the passion around the Buckeyes’ football program is a good thing — not because it overshadows the men’s basketball team, but because the passion around Ohio State football means being the Buckeyes’ men’s basketball coach doesn’t come with the kind of overbearing pressure that is felt at many of college basketball’s preeminent powers.

Ohio State is one of two major-conference programs currently with a coaching vacancy, with DePaul being the other. Several others are expected to or could come open, though, a list of potential competitors that includes Michigan, Louisville, West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Stanford and Washington.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Chris Holtmann fired: Why Ohio State basketball moved on from coach