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 proper platitudes. 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.
He was just recently rewarded with a very long contract extension, but as we’ve seen multiple times, those don’t really mean all that much. Like his stellar predecessors in Hinkle Fieldhouse, he will eventually jump for a bigger job sometime, and maybe Ohio State could be that gig.
Holtmann was definitely someone on the short list for OSU Athletics Director Gene Smith, as was Xavier’s Chris Mack, the latter of which publicly affirmed that he’s staying put. Creighton’s Greg McDermott did the same.
If you’re skeptical about the ESPN.com Chris Holtmann report, you have every right to be. They were way off about Chicago Bulls Head Coach Fred Hoiberg being in the mix.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/872894242129154048
Ohio State is in a very tough spot right now, by having to do a coaching search in June, but that’s a by-product of their very messy divorce with Thad Matta.
Thus, it’s worth noting about Chris Holtmann the public criticism he made of another B1G school’s coaching dismissal. During the NCAA Tournament, Holtman ripped Illinois for terminating his good friend and former colleague John Groce. This adds intrigue to the OSU-Illini meetings, should Holtmann take the job.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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