FBI probe doesn’t worry coach
Holtmann expects a much-needed effort to clean up sport.
It’s been almost five COLUMBUS — months since the FBI announced an investigation into corruption in college basketball that has threatened to rock the sport to its core. Recently, a pair of stories at Yahoo Sports have indicated the impact is going to spread and multiple major programs, coaches and players have reasons to be concerned.
The latest story quoted a source as saying any college to produce a first-round draft pick within the past three years should be worried. Last week, the website reported the impact could reach dozens of schools including nearly half of the 16 announced on the official NCAA Tournament bracket projection show aired Feb. 11.
Ohio State has one first-round draft pick in the past three years — D’Angelo Russell, who was taken second overall in the 2015 draft. The Buckeyes were also included among the 16 teams projected to earn a top-4 seed during the show.
In Columbus, first-year coach Chris Holtmann repeated the same message to reporters as he did when news of the FBI probe first hit: he’s not worried and change needs to happen to clean up the sport.
“I don’t think there’s any question something needs to be fixed in college basketball,” Holtmann said. “What all needs to be fixed in the specifics of that and how you go about it is a conversation that while I’ve thought about, I haven’t spent the number of hours that you probably need to (in order) to really figure out what kind of changes are going to be made. As I’ve said earlier, am I concerned? I’m not, because I can sleep well at night knowing how we’ve tried to run every program we’ve been a part of.
“I think it’s going to be interesting to see what the fallout is, and to what level of impact this has. Sometimes, quite honestly, I feel like it’s going to be quite limited, and then there are other times where I feel like it could completely change the face of the game. I’m not sure where I fall on that.”
The latest Yahoo story casts doubt each coach was fully aware of all the dealings. Holtmann was asked if such a situation seems feasible.
“I think there perhaps are some things that a head coach may not be aware of,” he said. “I’d like to think that I know most of what is going on within our program and within our guys. But, I don’t know everybody else’s program and I don’t know how they run their program. I do know that it’s now an expectation that you know what’s going on within your program specifically as it relates to the details of recruiting. The specific details of who you’re recruiting and how the recruiting is going down, who is involved, who the people are around them. That stuff now, we have to know.”
Since the FBI probe was announced, Ohio State has gone back and scrubbed its recruits for the past 10 years and come up clean, The Dispatch has learned. Holtmann said he’s instructed his assistants and others staff members to keep that going.
“There’s a quick way for someone on our staff to no longer be employed and I think they understand what that is and I would hope most people would,” he said.