New coach called intense, passionate
Chris Holtmann started from the bottom of the basketball pecking order, but he always had a vision for how he’d reach the top.
In many ways, the path of the new Ohio State men’s basketball coach is like his predecessor’s.
Holtmann, like Thad Matta, was the coach at Butler. Both attended high school in small towns in basketballobsessed areas. Matta led Hoopeston to the Illinois state tournament in the mid-1980s. Holtmann did the same for Jessamine County in Kentucky several years later.
Both transferred as college players — Holtmann from tiny Brescia College in Kentucky to NAIA power Taylor University in Indiana — before embarking on nomadic college coaching careers with many years of paying dues.
Now Holtmann, 45, is charged with returning Ohio State to the elite status it had under Matta before the program faded in recent years. Those who know Holtmann well say he is well- suited for the challenge.
Holtmann was an assistant at Ohio University when he interviewed in 2010 to become the coach at Gardner-Webb, where he had previously been an assistant. The North Carolina school’s vice president for athletics, Chuck Burch, included players in the hiring process and had them gather in the locker room to meet with Holtmann.
Ohio was fresh off its NCAA tournament upset of Georgetown, and Holtmann brought in the game plan he had helped formulate.
“He popped that up on the board in the locker room, and he got into it,” Burch said. “The intensity with which he went over that scouting report, and the level of excitement and enthusiasm he brought, was something we’d been lacking for several years in our locker room.
“That captivated those kids’ attention. It was exciting to see that. Not only was he going to hold them accountable and help them get better, but he was going to be passionate.”
That would become Holtmann’s hallmark. All college basketball coaches work hard. But only some embrace all aspects of the job. Burch said that Holtmann was willing to do whatever he needed to in the community to drum up interest in the program.
He didn’t work immediate magic at Gardner-Webb, which plays in the Big South Conference. His teams lost 21 and 20 games his first two seasons. But he was relentless and effective as a recruiter. In Holtmann’s third and final season, Gardner-Webb went 21- 13.
“You have to have the personality to meet people, but you also have to be able to help them see what they want to be and why they should play for you,” said retired Taylor coach Paul Patterson, who hired Holtmann as an assistant after being his coach. “In four years, what’s going to be the result? He has the ability to relate that to prospects. He’s not getting beat on effort and the things that it takes to recruit basketball players.”
Current GardnerWebb coach Tim Craft, who served as an assistant for Holtmann for three seasons, said that Holtmann was gifted at being able to see beyond players' physical attributes and understand how they’d mesh on his team.
“What’s really hard in recruiting,” he said, “is evaluating those X factors — how coachable a guy is going to be, what kind of a leader he’s going to be in the locker room, how bad a guy wants to win, how a guy is going to embrace his role. I always thought Chris was really good at identifying and evaluating those intangibles.”
What Holtmann wants above all else are players who are willing to work and embrace the ethos of toughness he wants.
“He’s a constant learner,” said Holtmann’s younger brother by 12 years, John Michael. “We grew up with a father who came from nothing. We always laugh because Chris has probably 50 books about grit and toughness, and he’s going to push that.”
That applied to his relationship with his brother, despite their age difference. “He never let me win or get away with anything,” John Michael said with a laugh.
He added that it was difficult for his brother to leave Butler for Ohio State. But it was a job he ultimately couldn’t turn down.
“Every ounce of his energy will be devoted to getting Ohio State back to the NCAA tournament,” Craft said. “I’ve got complete confidence it’ll happen soon. You’ll see him come in and be unbelievably respectful of everything Thad Matta has been able to do there. ( Matta) has been a model for all of us in the coaching business in terms of how he’s conducted himself.
“But then Chris is going to roll up his sleeves and get to work and put his stamp on it. I would be shocked if he doesn’t get it going there pretty quickly.”