The Ohio State Buckeyes made the primary large transfer of the boys’s basketball teaching carousel Wednesday, parting methods with Chris Holtmann hours after a 62–54 loss to the Wisconsin Badgers that marked the staff’s ninth loss within the final 11 video games, Sports activities Illustrated confirms.
Holtmann, who had the unenviable job of following Thad Matta in Columbus, began his tenure robust, however issues went downhill after his staff misplaced as a No. 2 seed to the No. 15 Oral Roberts Golden Eagles within the 2021 NCAA match. He adopted that up with a middling 20–12 marketing campaign in ’22, then bottomed out the following two seasons. Save for a run to the Huge Ten semifinals after a 5–15 league season in 2022–’23, Holtmann cratered in league play in consecutive seasons. That was sufficient to immediate a change, one that would price the Buckeyes round $14 million in buyout cash.
The transfer comes at an fascinating time for Ohio State. Longtime athletic director Gene Smith is retiring as of June 30, with present Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork set to take over on July 1. SI’s Pat Forde reported that Smith, not Bjork, made the choice to dismiss Holtmann.
Right here’s a take a look at whom Ohio State would possibly take into account as its subsequent head coach.
Sean Miller, Xavier Musketeers
Miller has gotten Xavier again on monitor after the Travis Steele period, taking the Musketeers to the Candy 16 in his first season and preserving them aggressive in Yr 2 regardless of brutal damage luck. Would a return to an enormous job just like the one he held at Arizona entice him? Miller’s recruiting pedigree is robust, and whereas he by no means broke by means of to a Ultimate 4 in Tucson, he did attain the second weekend 3 times in 4 years at one level with a pair of Elite Eight journeys combined in.
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Greg McDermott, Creighton Bluejays
McDermott was closely concerned on this job the final time it opened. Will he be once more this time? The longtime Creighton coach has continued to raise the Bluejays program, taking them to the Elite Eight for the primary time final season and establishing them as a fixture close to the highest of the Huge East. The Jays are set for his or her fourth top-25 KenPom end within the final 5 seasons, a exceptional feat for a program nonetheless in its relative infancy on the high-major stage. May he be wooed away from a spot he has spent virtually 15 years? With the suitable provide, perhaps.
Lamont Paris, South Carolina Gamecocks
Paris might effectively win Nationwide Coach of the Yr this season after executing a exceptional turnaround at South Carolina, flipping the Gamecocks from SEC bottom-feeders in his first season to reputable contenders this season. He’s additionally an Ohio native with Huge Ten roots from his time as an assistant coach beneath Bo Ryan with the Wisconsin Badgers. It could be a bit early on this one for each events: Ohio State might need a longer monitor file of success, and Paris might wish to see by means of constructing this South Carolina program. However this season’s success makes him an intriguing identify to think about, if nothing else.
Dusty Might, Florida Atlantic Owls
You possibly can pencil in Might’s identify on each high-level athletic director’s name record this spring after he led Florida Atlantic to the Ultimate 4 a yr in the past. Sustaining that stage of success this season has solely continued to spice up the 47-year-old’s inventory. This offseason feels just like the time for Might to go away FAU given a number of key items from the Owls’ veteran core are prone to transfer on, and this figures to be probably the greatest jobs available on the market. That mentioned, there was loads of hypothesis about Might, a former Indiana Hoosiers supervisor, someday returning to Bloomington, Indiana. Is he keen to attend out the Mike Woodson period slightly than leap at a job like OSU?
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Niko Medved, Colorado State Rams
Few coaches are higher program-builders than Medved, who has executed huge turnarounds with the Furman Paladins, Drake Bulldogs and now Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colorado. He constructed an NCAA match staff in 2022, then reloaded after a down ’23 to place collectively a staff with the potential to make noise in March this season. Give him the recruiting assets of Ohio State, and he’d construct a superb program in Columbus.
Porter Moser, Oklahoma Sooners
Regardless of Moser himself trying to disclaim them, rumors have run rampant in recent times about Moser’s want to get again to the Midwest. This will surely be a gorgeous choice, and sure only a higher job general, for the previous Loyola Chicago coach. Moser went to 1 Ultimate 4 and one other Candy 16 whereas in Rogers Park, Illinois, and has constructed a robust staff in his third season with the Sooners on monitor for a visit to the NCAA match.
Pat Kelsey, Charleston Cougars
The Ohio ties are robust right here: Kelsey is a Cincinnati native who performed and coached at Xavier. He’s an energizing character who would do an excellent job capturing pleasure at a soccer college, and he has a reasonably robust monitor file of successful throughout his stops with the Winthrop Eagles and at Charleston. His identify is a bit cooler this yr in comparison with final season’s 31-win marketing campaign, however it wouldn’t be a shock if he’s an element on this search. If nothing else, he could possibly be concerned within the trickle-down from this emptiness, filling a job like Xavier or South Carolina if Miller or Paris, respectively, is the selection.
Josh Schertz, Indiana State Sycamores
Schertz is maybe the preferred mid-major teaching identify of the cycle because of his aesthetically pleasing offense and spectacular turnaround of a dormant Indiana State program. He’s a former Division II coach who had tons of success at that stage and has rapidly constructed the Sycamores into an NCAA match–caliber staff. That is perhaps a much bigger leap than what you would possibly anticipate, however a Cinderella run may get him into the dialog right here rapidly.