Press Coverage: Why it was time for Ohio State to fire Chris Holtmann and who could replace him

Press Coverage: Why it was time for Ohio State to fire Chris Holtmann and who could replace him

Chris Holman’s tenure as Ohio State’s basketball coach is officially over on Wednesday Ohio state made the move to fire Chris Holman with a few weeks still to go in the regular season the final straw coming on Tuesday night as Ohio State suffered a road loss at Wisconsin

Far from its worst loss of a season but Ohio State’s ninth loss in the last 11 games and at at a point where it’s certainly felt like uh the season was pretty much over for Ohio State but Ohio state had no realistic chance of making the NCA tournament uh Ohio State decided

It was time I don’t I don’t know that either of us Andy necessarily expected that it was going to come today but I think we both felt that this was inevitable to happen sooner or later that Ohio state was going to have to make a change in a men’s basketball

Program and that change has now officially happened as Chris Holman is out as Ohio State’s men’s basketball coach yeah certainly not the timing I was expecting I mean I had a den just appointment scheduled for this afternoon I had to cancel and and help break this

News to you find people out there uh no I this was uh this was you know I I think the reason it kind of makes sense in my mind I guess is that Ohio State just looking at the trajectory of this season had kind of been you know they’d

Been improving the last few games you could say Obviously you blew the 18-point second half lead it in against Indiana that wasn’t an improvement but the at Iowa you had come close at least and that was a game that if you had a better better record and weren’t losing

A ton of games already you could have handled um they finally closed out a win late against Maryland in a double overtime game and you know I I think Chris was trying to point to the Improvement of the team coming out of that and yet you go and you lose this

Wisconsin team that yes is top 20 but is off four consecutive losses uh you only score 54 points in that game and frankly I didn’t think Wisconsin played all that well I thought it was a very winnable game it felt like they were kind of throwing darts at a wall Bowen Hardman

Playing a career high in minutes not that he played poorly he actually thought he gave him some stuff out there but you know I I think the more I’ve thought about it the more the timing kind of makes because the only path to the tournament from here is pretty much

Win out with a win over Purdue which you know who’s expecting AIO state to do that on Sunday right and uh probably win a couple games in the Big 10 tournament so um I think the path was such that maybe Ohio State wanted to get this process going as quickly as possible and

Felt that with this loss how the team looked that you know any Improvement You could argue now really wasn’t reflected in that Wisconsin game and so you you know again you start the process now rather than later yeah and obviously these things are always a process so

Most likely this decision was not made on Tuesday night like to M it was probably already in the works for a couple weeks now you know there were certainly you could point to a couple of games I think that loss at Northwestern where they just looked lifeless I think

They were down by like 35 points at one point that was certainly a game where I think that was the first time I said to you like hey you should probably get your Chris Holman fired story going because you never know and then certainly that game last week against

Indiana blowing that 18-point lead we we both agreed at that point it it felt like a new low for this Ohio State program and you know we we’ve been talking about it all year I mean the apathy around this program just from you know our listeners out there I think the

The interest in this program is lower than it’s been in a long time and that’s a reality of the results that this team has had over the past two seasons where two years in a row we’ve seen pretty much an utter collapse in Big 10 play

Ohio State again I mean to me yeah you see they were gonna have to win out they they they would have had to win the rest of their regular season games to get to that 20 win number that we had floated out there which was what they probably

Needed to make the NCA tournament I don’t think anybody thought they were going to win their next six games in a row they were gonna have to do that or win the Big 10 tournament so you know neither of those things are likely I don’t think changing from Chris Holtman

To Jake debler at this point makes those things any less likely I’m not sure it makes them any more likely but I don’t think it makes them any less likely unless players start entering the transfer portal which is certainly possible because Ohio State now has a transfer portal window but the re the

Reality is keeping Chris Holman employed any longer was only delaying the inevitable of this point he he he was not going to be back as Ohio State’s basketball coach next year it it was clear that he was just not getting the job done and and and that’s just the

That’s just the cold hard truth and his seventh year as Ohio State’s basketball coach is a team that has yet to make the sweet 16 has yet to seriously contend for a big 10 title and you know all the things we talked about going into this

Year in terms of bringing in another top 10 recruiting class bringing back a strong class of sophomores bringing in some veteran transfers it just has an come together the way it was supposed to at least not in a way it yield yields results and I don’t think there was

Anything you could point to and say this is a reason why Chris Holman should keep his job Beyond this year other than maybe the 12.8 million that Ohio state is going to have to pay him but you know you know you mentioned it before I mean the amount of money they’re losing right

Now just on people not buying tickets for games is a part of that equation too so with Ross Bjork coming in you know I certainly felt like he was going to want to make a change I think probably a notable part of this is that Jean Smith

Was willing to make that change that you know on on his way out the door he was willing to make that change to to pull the trigger when it when it when it needed to be um and so you know credit to him for that that you know I think he

He realized that it was it was time to make that change and Ohio State has confirmed that rth bjor is going to lead that search uh when he comes on board in March which certainly makes sense because Ross Bor is going to be this next coach’s boss and so uh there’s no

Reason for Jean to be picking Chris’s success for uh Ross Bor is certainly the one who’s going to lead that search and with that in mind Andy you just published a story this afternoon on some of the candidates who could make sense for Ohio State to replace Chris Holman

Who are a few of those names in your mind that you think would really make a lot of sense you know the one I’ve been saying for a while now is Greg mcdermit I I think you know even back in January when you really started thinking about

Okay things are taking a downturn this could be it you know that was he was involved in the search last time um he’s had a long track record of success at kraton um I just think that hire would make a lot of sense for Ohio State for a

Lot of reasons I think there’s a couple that are intriguing to me from a perspective of their high risk High reward perhaps one of the big ones in that regard for me is Lamont Paris you know Paris is a guy who’s been coaching all that long a head coach all that long

Um but you know he’s he’s made a very quick turnaround at South Carolina they’re 21 and three this year Advanced numbers seem to indicate maybe they’re not as good as that record but in any case I mean what he’s done with South Carolina in a very short span of time a

Guy who’s got Ohio ties a native of Finley Ohio uh very interesting there and then you know I actually like Dusty May a lot at Florida Atlantic I know that’s not exactly uh you know it’s not a bigname program right it’s not a big

Name hire per se but it’s a one that a lot of people I think would be intrigued by and he I mean you make a final four with a at a school like that that’s kind of a big deal it’s eye-catching and I think maybe Ohio State basketball could

Use some juice someone who has achieved big results even if it’s just you know again not with that long track record like a McDermot has or even you know uh Thad ma is you know a possibility to be brought back I think not I I wouldn’t lean toward that happening I I think

You’re best off moving in a New Direction but he’s regained his health which I think is what kind of what compromised the tail end of his career in Ohio State obviously had great success before all of that unfolded and now that he is feeling better he’s having you know great success at Butler

Right now in terms of turning that program around and they’re you know not like at the top of the conference but they’re a really solid team and they weren’t when he got there so um I think that there’s some attractive candidates there obviously uh still a lot to

Evaluate a lot of Gossip the the one home run that Ohio State can try and hit that I think is rather outlandish but um certainly at least worth a phone call is Jay Wright uh talk about a guy who just in November said he has no interest in returning to coaching

Uh but is an analyst for CVS sports right now so there’s no ties to a school that’s keeping him from coming to Ohio State and One MA multiple national titles at villain NOA for those unaware I’m sure many are who are listening to this um so if if Ohio State can get that

That would be probably the number one candidate but uh who’s to say if he’d even you know be interested Beyond picking up that initial phone call right but certainly worth at least gauging his interest so you know we talked about this earlier Dan the difference between this coaching Search and say if Ohio

State was searching for its next head football coach is that you you’re really just throwing darts at a board at this point in some respects because there’s so many ways you could go with this basketball you know there’s a lot more coaches involved in these searches it’s

Not as like Ohio State’s not quite a blue blood in basketball although they do have some program Prestige um so I you know whereas the list of possible head coaching football candidates if Ohio state had to make that move uh would be much smaller the basketball

List is much bigger but still I I think those people that I mentioned are among a group that’s a good starting point for Ohio State yeah I mean the question is is Ohio State gonna go and pry a coach away from another big name program or

Are they going to go for someone who’s maybe more or of an upand Comer you know somebody who’s looking for that bigger job and I think you know either way could work if it’s the right guy you know you mentioned Dusty May that was when we first started thinking about

Possible replacements for Chris Holman he was a first name that jumped to mind for me because of how good he’s been at FAU and just a fact that you know that’s a guy who I think would certainly have reason to be interested to make that

Jump I think you know there’s a lot of other names that get thrown around you know we we we mentioned names like Nate oats at Alabama or Eric muselman at Arkansas I think those are a couple guys it would be intriguing to go after would they actually be interested I don’t know

I mean Money Talks so if you if you offer enough money you might be able to get those guys but you know it it’s hard to say I know you know another name that’s been thrown around is Shawn Miller which would be an interesting one

Certainly has a lot of ties to the state also has a bit of a checkered past with with what went down at Arizona and so I I think this search will tell us something about Ross bork as well because it will tell us how willing is

He to take a risk on a candidate who maybe has some other some more risk factors and on top of that it will also tell us how much does Ross bork value men’s basketball at o at Ohio State I is Ohio State gonna go and pay a big salary

And really try to make a big Power move here or you know are they gonna go for somebody who’s maybe uh coming from a smaller program and therefore might come a little cheaper I think uh it’s going to be really interesting to see how this

Plays out and uh we we will start to get a little more information about that tonight when Jean Smith is uh scheduled to meet with the media uh this evening so we’ll certainly have more coverage a lot more coverage of this to come on 11 Warriors as you know Andy we’ve talked

About it you know the basketball season felt kind of uninteresting but now it feels interesting again because now Ohio state has a uh new coach to search for and you know we’ll also see you know how how does you know I do either of us think vid Ohio state is going to promote

Internally it’s unlikely but it will be interesting to see how Jake debler does in this interim role as well because I certainly think he’s someone who has the potential to be a future head coach somewhere and so it’ll be interesting to see how he handles this interim run ever

He can spark anything from this team probably not going to be enough to make a magic run into the NCA tournament but if he can provide some kind of spark for this team in its last few weeks of a season absolutely you know I think at

The very least he’s a he could be a mid- major head coach somewhere I don’t I don’t it would take something miraculous from him to really emerge as a candidate for the full-time Ohio State head coaching job I think I mean they they’d have to do something incredible here

Down the stretch and Jake’s a great guy and again like like we’ve said I think would be a very capable head coach at have been major but uh right now you know doesn’t have a background of experience really doesn’t have the the the qualities you’re looking for the

Resume you’re looking for in an Ohio State head basketball coach so you know it’ll be a fun thing to watch just in terms of hey this program is now in transition it’s in flux how do they respond what do the play do you know how do they perform under an interim head

Coach right now and yeah just I think uh this added a lot of interest to the back end of Ohio State season where there wasn’t before uh and you know I I think for a program where apathy has kind of ruled the day for the past few months

And that’s really you know as we discussed earlier that really has been reflecting the attendance numbers there’s now a reason at least for people to be interested for people to maybe watch the team for people to at least follow uh what’s going to go on with the

Head coaching search so uh we we’ll be here to cover it all Jake deer’s first game as interim head coach will come against number two Purdue on Sunday so not an easy first game for for Jake debler but we’ll see how that goes Andy will certainly be there at bottenstein

Center for that one and as we said lots more coverage to come on 11 warriors.com so stay tuned with us there and here on 11 Warriors YouTube channel and thanks for watching press coverage

Eleven Warriors’ Dan Hope and Andy Anders react to Ohio State’s decision to fire Chris Holtmann and take a first look at some coaches who could be candidates to replace him.

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