Holtmann doesn’t like early gap in schedule
There's an art to assembling a college basketball schedule. Between previously scheduled non-conference events, ever-lengthening conference commitments and multi-team events scheduled around Thanksgiving, the annual task is full of pitfalls that aren't always evident when the final product is published.
And sometime a team plans for something that never materializes. Right now, that's where No. 23 Ohio State sits, nearly at the midway point of an unplanned, nine-day gap between games. Why did the Buckeyes host Rutgers on Thursday without another game until this Saturday, when they go to Madison Square Garden to face North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic?
As it turns out, the reasons have a lot to do with the Big Ten's expansion to 20 league games and decision to play a few of them amid the non-conference slate.
“This week, we anticipated playing another Big Ten game so there was a little bit of a gap in our schedule,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said.
Since the Big Ten went from 18 to 20 conference games for the 2018-19 season in an effort to bolster resumes and help more teams reach the NCAA Tournament, teams have typically played two consecutive league games starting either in late November or early December. There have been exceptions to the rule – Maryland and Northwestern each played just one early Big Ten game last year, and five teams including Ohio State have played a non-conference game in between two league games – but by and
large Big Ten teams have opened December with two conference games for the last five seasons.
Ohio State isn't alone in playing just one this season: Purdue, Michigan, Northwestern and Iowa are also facing a gauntlet of 19 straight league games once the calendar flips to January.
It's not so much the layoff that has Holtmann concerned as the timing. Given the chance for a rest amid Big Ten play come January or February, the coach said, he would take that opportunity for rest in the grind of league play as opposed to the non-conference portion of the schedule.
“I would do that in a heartbeat in January, February – I just don't prefer it to be
right now,” Holtmann said. “I think we'll need that break come January-february versus right now.”
The time away could also set the Buckeyes up for a de facto second minicamp, allowing them to dial in on specific areas that have frustrated Holtmann through the first nine games. Overall defensive focus as well as defensive rebounding would be high on the to-do list, but as of Monday the Buckeyes have been low on numbers in recent days.
“We've had some guys out with various medical things and Isaac (Likekele) being gone,” Holtmann said. “Our numbers have been limited so we haven't been able to dive into that as much in these last couple days as I'd like to. .”