Chris Holtmann says Ohio State Buckeyes 'just have to be better,' but can they be?
EVANSTON, Ill. – Voice raspy, Chris Holtmann squared his shoulders and stood with his back to the wall. All around him, the customary chaos that is the aftermath of a men’s college basketball game carried on as managers loaded bags, players headed for buses and arena employees got to work trying to close down Welsh-Ryan Arena.
About half an hour had passed since the ugliest in a growing string of losses had reached its merciful end for Ohio State. Only a 12-2 run to close the game prevented Saturday night’s 83-58 loss at Northwestern from being the most lopsided loss in series history for the Buckeyes, and it’s fair to debate whether the game was even as close as its 25-point margin would indicate.
Ohio State fell behind at 5-4 and never led again. Powerless to slow down Northwestern’s offense and unable to solve the home team’s defense, the Buckeyes trailed by double figures for the final 21:06 and at one point stared at a season-high 35-point deficit in what was largely a noncompetitive game.
In between the final whistle and Holtmann’s press conference, sophomore captain Bruce Thornton said the captains spoke to players, and obviously Holtmann addressed his team. At some point, a clipboard decorated to look like Ohio State’s home court was splintered into three pieces.
“Bottom line we just have to be better,” Holtmann said. “Across the board. All of us. Players, coaches, we just have to be better. I believe it’s fixable, and it’s our job to fix it. I definitely think it’s fixable, and we’re going to work like hell to find a way to fix it and certainly be better than what we were tonight.
“Give Northwestern credit. I thought they were good, but our concern right now is how are we better as coaches and players so that’s what we’ve got to do.”
It was the kind of loss that brought big-picture questions to the forefront. The particulars of the game, from Ohio State’s continued inability to hit shots to its ongoing problems stopping other teams from making them, quickly faded to the background as one question presented itself: Can whatever is wrong with this team be fixed?
Three weeks ago, Ohio State went to Indiana with a 12-2 record and 2-1 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes lost to the Hoosiers, starting a three-game skid where they held leads in the second half of games and made late runs but couldn’t make enough plays to win. Ohio State broke that streak with a relatively comfortable home win against Penn State, but now has lost consecutive road games by double figures. And much like Saturday night’s game, the Buckeyes weren’t very competitive in Tuesday night’s 14-point loss at Nebraska.
In between, the coaches held individual meetings with players before two days of practice that have both publicly and privately been lauded for how well the players attacked them. Then Saturday night happened, and the performance did not match the preparation.
“I’m not sure I really saw this coming, to be honest with you,” Holtmann said. “I thought we were pretty engaged in practice. Our effort was good. Sometimes you can see a game like this coming. I think to a man, our coaching staff would feel like we had a pretty engaged two days but obviously we need to be better.”
Good preparation did not yield good results for the Buckeyes, who now must prepare to host No. 10 Illinois for a Tuesday night game that will mark the midpoint of Big Ten play. Not surprisingly, Thornton said Ohio State is struggling for confidence right now.
“We’re really searching for it right now, but I still believe in my teammates and the coaching staff,” he said. “We’re just going through a rough patch. We’ve got a lot of games ahead of us, especially a big one at home. We’re going to take advantage of that, get that win and keep rolling after that.”
Externally, it’s getting harder to see that quickly turning around. Last year, Holtmann and his staff started to dig their way out of a stretch of 14 losses in 15 games by harping on the little successes guys were putting together. It was far too late to build an NCAA Tournament resume, but that approach saw the Buckeyes go 5-2 in their last seven games and enter the offseason with some optimism for 2023-24.
Saturday, Holtmann pointed out that this year’s team isn’t thinking about what happened last year as much as the outside world is. Internally, the focus is on this year, on trying to find a way out of a season that is starting to look destined for the same fate.
Zed Key said that while the Buckeyes have gone through ruts during his four years at Ohio State, they’ve always found their way out of them and that he believes this year’s team will follow suit.
“I’m confident we have the right group of guys,” he said.
The team’s most experienced player went on to include his coach in that mix. As the losses pile up and the questions about the long-term direction of the program intensify in Holtmann’s seventh season at Ohio State, both Key and Thornton said the players are still bought into what the coaches are telling them.
And yes, they are aware of the criticisms.
“Fans look at it with a different set of eyes,” Key said. “They just see the losses, but Holtmann’s a really good coach. We trust him. He trusts us. He loves us. He’s a really good guy, really good coach. It’s definitely tough to hear, because everyone says black out social media but you can’t, really. It’s always right in front of you.”
Said Thornton: “We’re going to turn Ohio State basketball around.”
In 13 years as a head coach, Holtmann is 250-167 (.600). At Ohio State, he is 136-82 (.624). Holtmann is 7-7 in the NCAA Tournament but has reached just one Sweet 16 when he got Butler there in 2016-17 before being hired to replace Thad Matta that offseason. Until last year, he had not missed an NCAA Tournament at Ohio State (the Buckeyes were projected as a likely No. 5 seed when the 2020 installment was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
“You coach long enough, you have moments that are certainly really humbling and that’s part of being in a profession like this,” he said. “For all of us, we’ve got to find a way to get them in a better mindset and prepare to play better than what we’ve played. I don’t think we played nearly this poorly during this (entire) stretch, but we certainly have this last game and a half. We’ve got to figure out how to correct it here quickly.”
That much is evident. How the Buckeyes do that, and if they can, are questions that are growing by the game. On a misty, foggy night on the north side of Chicago, they seemed further away than ever.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Chris Holtmann says Buckeyes 'just have to be better.' Can they be?
