The Ohio State basketball program parted ways with Chris Holtmann earlier this week. It was time for him to go after the last two seasons were some of the worst seasons the Buckeyes have had in the last 25 years. Ohio State is in need of a program reset. Now they are in the midst of a coaching search as the new coach will likely come from outside the program.
Holtmann’s firing made a lot of sense to Ohio State basketball fans. In fact, it made most fans happy. It apparently didn’t make other coaches around the country so happy though. In fact, several coaches came to the defense of Holtmann. Apparently, not going over .500 in your conference over the past two years and not making it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament isn’t grounds for termination.
Coaches come to the defense of ex-Ohio State basketball coach
Coach K, Jay Wright, and Tom Izzo have all come to some sort of defense of Holtmann. Mike Krzyzewski’s comments were the strangest of them all. Holtmann has a lot of friends in the coaching community it seems. Yet, all of these coaches are missing several key reasons as to why Holtmann was fired.
Ohio State basketball fans had lost interest in the program because of what had happened in the last two years. The Buckeyes haven’t won a road game in over a year. He was on the job for almost seven years, not three. It’s not like Gene Smith didn’t give him time to build the program. Instead, he has made it significantly worse than it was under his predecessor Thad Matta.
All of these coaches have had way more success than Holtmann ever did with the Buckeyes. Holtmann never won a conference title in addition to never making it past the first weekend in March Madness. Ohio State isn’t supposed to have standards? It’s ridiculous for those coaches to not consider all of the factors going into a dismissal before opening their mouths about it.
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