Report: Ohio State to part ways with men's basketball coach Chris Holtmann

Ohio State is reportedly parting ways with basketball head coach Chris Holtmann, according to Jeff Goodman of the Field of 68. Holtmann was in the middle of his seventh season with the program.

“BREAKING: Ohio State has parted ways with Chris Holtmann, source told (the Field of 68),” Goodman wrote on Twitter. “Holtmann went to the NCAA tourney in each of his first 4 years with the Buckeyes, and was set to go the year the tourney was canceled.

“Went all 3 years at Butler and went to Sweet 16. Buckeyes has taken nose-dive the last two years and Gene Smith decided to make move now.”

USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz reported quite a large buyout number for Holtmann.

“Ohio State fires men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann after seven seasons,” Berkowitz wrote. “Per his contract, he is due a buyout of about $15.5 million, subject to his duty to mitigate. The deal had been set run through June 30, 2028.”

Going into the season, Holtmann had a 123-73 record with the Buckeyes. However, the 2023 campaign and this year did not go as well as the beginning of his tenure.

Other than the canceled 2020 tournament, Holtmann led Ohio State to the NCAA Tournament in four of his first seasons.

However, the team did not get past the Round of 32. Other than last year and the current season, Holtmann led the Buckeyes to 20-plus wins each year.

After a game on February 10, a win for the Buckeyes over Maryland, Holtmann revealed what it meant to get a win like that. It could catapult Ohio State the rest of the way.

“I love some of what we’ve had from our guys that we’ve talked about that are kind of the foundational pieces of our team and our program,” Holtmann said. “A guy like Bruce [Thornton], in terms of how he’s led in practice the past couple of days, but Roddy [Gayle’s] ability to impact the game in a different way, even a guy like Dale [Bonner] who’s in his first year but his mindset has been so good in terms of helping this group both in practice and in games, even though he’s a quieter guy. Evan [Mahaffey], Felix [Okpara], we’ve had a lot of guys who have had the right approach.

“And, as a coach, you’re just glad that they finally found the reward of a win.”

In the end, it didn’t work out in 2024 for Holtmann. The long time head coach will have to wait and see for what’s next.

Prior to Ohio State, Holtmann coached Gardner-Webb from 2010-13 and finished 44-54, leading them to the CIT in his final season.

Afterwards, he took over Butler for three seasons, following one year as an assistant with the school, going 70-31 and went to three NCAA Tournaments, including the Sweet 16 in 2017. That’s when Ohio State landed its man.

A former guard at Brescia and Taylor College (1990-94), Holtmann began his coaching career at Geneva in 1998 before taking numerous assistant jobs prior to Gardner-Webb.