Chris Holtmann details Ohio State's defensive struggles against Northwestern's top scorer

The Ohio State Buckeyes dropped a closely contested game against the Northwestern Wildcats on Thursday night, 69-63. The Buckeyes could find no answer for Northwestern’s leading scorer, Brooks Barnhizer. He poured in 19 points, while connecting on four of his seven three pointers.

Barnhizer also corralled four rebounds in 27 minutes of work in propelling the Wildcats to victory. Following the game, Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann talked about the Buckeyes’ struggles against the Northwestern’s top scorer.

“Yeah, we probably needed to close on him a bit better. He’s a good driver. He’s a strong kid. Again, he’s a 23% three-point shooter, but when he makes a couple, he’s confident and we probably could have closed on him a bit harder,” Holtmann said.

The Ohio State head coach is obviously disappointed these days

Ohio State head basketball coach Chris Holtmann is not a happy camper these days. After starting this season out 10-3 behind an incredibly efficient offense, the Buckeyes have completely fallen apart. They’ve lost five straight and 10 of their last 11 in Big Ten play, the most recent loss coming at home to Northwestern. OSU actually had a chance to pull that win off but once again faltered in the final minutes to ultimate lose the game.

Following the game, a dejected Holtmann was asked what went wrong in the deciding possessions down the stretch. To which he answered without much vigor:

“Well, I think we’ve obviously got to get better in those areas. But give them credit. They got an old group and did a good job.”

Not long on detail there was he? Nor was he when one reporter asked a bit of a convoluted question about freshman Brice Sensabaugh’s recent poor play.

Chris Holtmann snaps at reporter over Brice Sensabaugh question

While the topic was certainly fair — broadly, what’s been up with star freshman Brice Sensabaugh struggling offensively — the delivery of the question probably left something to be desired. And it certainly left Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann hot under the collar.

Following a 69-63 home loss to Northwestern that sunk the Buckeyes to 10-13 on the season and marked a 10th loss in 11 games, Holtmann was clearly frustrated. So when a reporter asked Holtmann if bringing Sensabaugh off the bench hurt his offensive rhythm, the head coach appear to take affront to the implications of his coaching acumen.

“If that’s what you’d like to say, then feel free,” Holtmann said.

And after a brief follow-up, he added that “I’ve answered the question, regarding Brice.”

The reporter took a third crack, asking the question straight up: Do you fear you’ve taken him out of his offensive rhythm by bringing him off the bench the last two games?

“If that’s the case, then feel free to write that. I think Brice battled hard here tonight. We’ll find ways to put him in better position,” Holtmann said. 

Testy exchange between the Ohio State head coach and the reporter. Simply not fun times in on the basketball court in Columbus at the moment.

On3’s Alex Weber also contributed to this article.