Gene Smith, Ohio State Athletics Director, announced the hire of Butler Head Coach Chris Holtmann as the new man to lead Buckeyes men’s basketball. Holtmann agreed to an eight-year contract with Ohio State worth about $3 million annually, Smith said. Final details of the deal are being finalized and will be released at a later date.

Chris Holtmann just signed a lengthy extension at Butler, but it’s par for the course that bigger programs come in and exercise those expensive buyouts.

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Chris Holtmann is 70-31 over his three seasons at Butler, making the NCAA Tournament all three times. During his tenure, he’s consistently been barraged with questions about his interest in/connection to open head coaching jobs everywhere.

He’s the consummate professional when it comes to answering all those queries about bigger gigs too; always giving the most banal of platitudes possible. Now he’s going to get a few more queries, as ESPN.com claims he’s the front-runner for the open Ohio State job.

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Ohio State basketball might be a top 15 level job nationally. Certainly, it has the potential to be one of the highest compensated in the nation. Indeed THE Ohio State University has one of the wealthiest and most lucrative athletic departments around.

However, this late in the cycle, I can’t really see Columbus landing one of the top tier candidates. Federal law mandates you include Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall in any coaching search column, but I just can’t see that realistically happening. The evil Koch brothers funnel so much money into that school that he earns over $3 million a year.

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Thad Matta has done so much for Ohio State basketball that he truly deserves to leave on his own terms. Technically, on the surface level he has done exactly that, as he announced his resignation today, effective immediately.

In reality though, OSU Athletics Director Gene Smith essentially claimed responsibility for the decision. Matta, the all-time leader in wins (337) and games coached (460) in Ohio State history, announced that he’s stepping down at a news conference that he and Smith held today. During the session, Smith essentially said that recruiting woes are the reason a regime change has been made, which means Thad Matta was actually forced out.

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