What Chris Holtmann Said After Ohio State's 76-73 Loss to Indiana

Ohio State dropped another game on Tuesday, falling 76-73 to Indiana at home. The Buckeyes owned an 18-point advantage but, once again, failed to make enough plays late to secure a victory.

The Buckeyes have now lost five straight games and have dropped eight of their last nine contests. Needless to say, Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann wasn't happy after the game.

Here's everything Holtmann was asked, as well as every response, following another loss.

Chris Holtmann post-game presser

Holtmann (opening statement): "Yeah, give Indiana credit. Thought they played really well, particularly in the second half. We had trouble scoring. (Trey) Galloway was certainly a hard guy for us to match up with. So, give them credit."

Chris, another game you had another 18-point lead in, just like Penn State. This team has had issues holding leads. What was it tonight?

Holtmann: "I just didn't think we were aggressive enough on either end. 

What gives you hope that that is correctable at this point in the season?

Holtmann: "We'll see. Yeah, we'll see."

Chris, what isn't working with these late-game sets? Back-to-back games, just not being able to execute late.

Holtmann: "I don't think — we executed a couple late-game sets. Yeah, I'm not sure. The last one, they just jumped it. The other ones, we got what we wanted. We got what we wanted, baseline out of bounds. But the last one, they jumped it."

Still same thought process with Dale (Bonner) with his 3-point shooting like last game? Or is there a different reason for having him handle the ball on that last sequence?

Holtmann: "What sequence you talking about?"

The one before the Jamison turnover.

Holtmann: "That's a set play. We just went with a smaller lineup."

Chris, felt like a gut punch. Is part of the frustration maybe a lack of urgency? You said not physical enough. Is it a lack of urgency or a lack ...

Holtmann: "We just weren't as detailed as we needed to be or tough as we needed to be late."

I think last 10-and-a-half minutes you were two-of-11 with five turnovers, just offensively, in that sequence, they cut it from 18 down to two, took the lead ...

Holtmann: "Yep. We just needed to be more aggressive."

In general, two games in a row, game's on the line and neither Bruce Thornton or Roddy Gayle had the ball in their hands — I know the ball was going to Roddy, but it never go there. Just your thought?

Holtmann: "No, Roddy had the ball in his hands late. He had the ball in his hands late, so."

OK, it went Bonner to Battle, turned over on the final play.

Holtmann: "That was for Jamison (Battle), yeah."

OK, again, second game in a row, the game's on the line and your two best ball-handlers don't have the ball in their hand.

Holtmann: "We had scored off that. Jamison scored and got fouled earlier. We thought we could get to the line. We liked the matchup.

The idea of Felix (Okpara) setting the screen there, they're not gonna guard him. He's gonna get double-teamed, Battle is, and then the turnover creates out of it. I don't know.

Holtmann: "Yeah, we ran baseline out of bounds and had gotten to the free throw line with him coming to his left two plays earlier, Steve."

When you talk about a team that's not handling adversity well in games — you said that last week, they didn't handle adversity well, just weren't tough enough down the stretch. How do you build that in the course of the season? Is that something you can build? 

Holtmann: "Yeah, we gotta learn from it."

Is that one of the most disappointing things so far in the season, that you had guys who went through this last year and they're still not ...

Holtmann: "It was a little bit of toughness but, you know, it was like a detail, too. You can't leave a 3-point shooter on ball-side."

Chris, you guys are going through some pretty rough things right now, but you seem to have a locker room that is still exactly where you want it to be. And you have a coaching staff that appears to be exactly where you want it to be. How frustrating is it to know that everybody is on the same page and bought in and you're still not seeing the scoreboard show what you want it to?

Holtmann: "Yeah, we've got great kids. So, I don't ever question that. But, we need to see some results here.

You're a program builder, when you're building a program and you get the right kids that you think are going to have the right results, those results aren't showing up, for you, as competitive as you are, how frustrating is that for you to have to sit up here and answer questions like this?

Holtmann: "Yeah, I mean, I think it's frustrating for everybody. It's obviously been a really hard stretch for all of our players and our coaches, so, we gotta find a way out of it.

Chris, near the end of the game when you have a lead, you want to use clock. It makes sense. How do you balance the dribbling out the clock versus wanting to get into a set and start passing the ball? It seems like six minutes and under, when the guys are dribbling, things just stalled.

Holtmann: "Yeah, it was more a sense of, we were not as aggressive as we needed to be. I thought we missed the post a couple times when we could have. We certainly weren't trying to protect anything with six minutes to go. It might've felt that way because we were dribbling too much. But I just thought we missed a couple opportunities where we could've thrown the ball in the post or attacked. And their length bothered us and our lack of shooting bothered us."

Talked a lot recently about "the day," and focusing on practice or focusing on that day. When the results like this don't come, does that become harder to do, especially for younger guys?

Holtmann: "Well, we'll see tomorrow. I'm sure it's a hard one for our guys. We'll see how they respond tomorrow."

Devin (Royal) had given you some stuff the last couple games, you talk about the team not having enough attention to detail, what went into him not playing at all in the second half.

Holtmann: "He got in foul trouble."

What was the scout on Galloway and (Malik) Reneau and the way they were able to put you in ball screen?

Holtmann: "Good in his right hand. I didn't think we got to his right hand well enough."

Is that an example of the detail and the things you talk about?

Holtmann: "Detail and toughness, yeah. We have to be better."

How does this loss sit with you? I mean you've  — like you said, tough stretch, you're at home, you're up 18, you feel this one slip away. How does a loss like this ...

Holtmann: "Well, I think it's a tough one for all of our guys. Not just me. It's tough one for everyone a part of the program."

Is this the kinda loss in the season — is there still time to come back from something like this?

Holtmann: "I mean, I think we'll see how we respond."