Chris Holtmann replaced Thad Matta as Ohio State's head coach exactly 23 days ago.
In that window, he's officially brought on his former Butler assistant coaches, welcomed former Butler signee and Ohio hooper Kyle Young, retained David Egelhoff as director of basketball operations, announced Dave Richardson will vacate the strength and conditioning role, first suspended then booted redshirt freshman swingman Derek Funderburk, and announced incoming freshman Braxton Beverly will not be a Buckeye.
In addition, he and the staff have been evaluating players and making offers right and left.
With all that activity, he now sports a roster with nine scholarship players, one of which belongs to a former walk-on.
The moral of those last three paragraphs? Get ready for some spectacular turbulence this season. Embrace it as part of the rebuilding process. It's unavoidable after Gene Smith unfortunately, but finally, saved Thad Matta from himself.
How bad the on-court output will be in Year One remains to be seen but for context, I was curious how past Buckeye head coaches fared in their own first year. As you'd expect, for the most part, the results weren't much to write home about.
Here's the goods dating back to Fred Taylor's arrival in 1958:
| SEASON | HEAD COACH | OVERALL RECORD | CONFERENCE RECORD | POSTSEASON? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1958-59 | FRED TAYLOR | 11-11 | 7-7 (5TH) | NO |
| 1976-77 | ELDON MILLER | 9-18 | 4-14 (10TH) | NO |
| 1986-87 | GARY WILLIAMS | 20-13 | 9-9 (6TH) | NCAA 2ND ROUND |
| 1989-90 | RANDY AYERS | 17-13 | 10-8 (6TH) | NCAA 2ND ROUND |
| 1997-98 | JIM O'BRIEN | 8-22 | 1-15 (11TH) | NO |
| 2004-05 | THAD MATTA | 20-12 | 8-8 (6TH) | NO - INELIGIBLE |
1958-59: FRED TAYLOR
A former OSU baseball player who went on to play professionally before returning to Ohio State as an assistant basketball coach, Fred Taylor took over as head coach the following season.
His first year in Columbus was meh as the Buckeyes turned out an 11-11 record including 7-7 in the conference, good for 5th place and no postseason.
His first team featured Larry Siegfried (19.6 ppg) Larry Huston (16.4) and Dick Furry (11.5) but not much else.
Of course that one year of pain was quickly forgotten as the 1959-60 season saw Jerry Lucas (26.3 ppg, 16.4 rpg), Mel Nowell (13.1 ppg) and John Havlicek (12.9 ppg), among others, join Siegfried in a march to the program's one and only national championship.
OSU would make it to the title game each of the next two seasons but fall both times to Cincinnati.
1976-77: ELDON MILLER
Fresh off a six-year stint at Western Michigan which produced the program's only MAC championship to that point, Miller took over for Taylor ahead of the 1976-77 season.
Year one was a total dud as the Buckeyes went 9-18 overall and 4-14 in league play to finish 10th and obviously sat on the postseason sidelines.
Kelvin Ransey was the star of Miller's first season (13.1 ppg) with an assist from Larry Bolden (11.8 ppg) and Terry Burris (11.0 ppg).
Year two welcomed Herb Williams (16.7 ppg, 11.4 rpg) alongside Ransey (17.6 ppg) and another newcomer, Ken Page (12.3 ppg), to form a more formidable squad but the end result was still just a 16-11 overall mark which again fell short of any postseason bid.
Miller would reach the NIT semifinals in year three but things finally clicked in year four as the Buckeyes reached the Sweet Sixteen after going 21-8 overall including a 2nd place finish in the B1G powered by Williams, Ransey, Clark Kellogg and Carter Scott.
1986-87: GARY WILLIAMS
After a four-year stop in Boston College, Gary Williams took over at Ohio State in time for the 1986-87 season.
With Brad Sellers off to the NBA but Dennis Hopson still in the fold, year one of the Williams era saw the Buckeyes post a 20-13 mark and 9-9 in the B1G (6th) leading to an NCAA tournament appearance which ended in the 2nd round.
Williams employed a hectic 94-feet of basketball mentality creating a new excitement in St. John Arena which quickly helped him earn love from the fans.
One of only two OSU coaches to win at least 20 games in their first year, Williams struggled to build on the early success as year two produced an identical 20-13 mark but that was only good enough for an NIT berth ending in the finals while year three slipped to 19-15 and an NIT quarterfinals appearance.
Williams split for his alma mater, Maryland, the following year.
1989-90: RANDY AYERS
With Williams understandably leaving Ohio State just three years into his tenure, the school turned to Randy Ayers, giving him his first collegiate head coaching gig.
Ayers went 17-13 in his first season including 10-8 in league action which led to an NCAA tourney bid ending in the 2nd round.
Lucky for Ayers the cupboard wasn't bare upon arrival as a kid named Jimmy Jackson (16.1 ppg, 5.5 rpg) teamed with veteran pivot Perry Carter (15.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg), Alex Davis and Mark Baker. A slew of young kids still finding their way included names like Chris Jent, Treg Lee, Jamaal Brown and Bill Robinson.
The next two years produced a Sweet Sixteen (27-4 overall) and a disappointing run to the Elite Eight (26-6 overall) along with a pair of B1G titles.
Annnnnd then the wheels fell off (or maybe they were shot out) spectacularly over the next five years. The end.
1997-98: JIM O'BRIEN
Again massaging that Boston College pipeline, Ohio State tabbed Jim O'Brien as the coach to clean up a program in shambles following Ayers' departure.
With an almost entirely new starting five highlighted by Michael Redd's arrival, OSU went 8-22 overall and produced one league win in 16 tries.
The following season, however, with Scoonie Penn now eligible post-transfer to team with Redd and the more-seasoned Ken Johnson and Jason Singleton, along with George Reese, the Buckeyes reached the Final Four.
O'Brien would make the Dance each of the following three seasons but fail to get beyond the 2nd round before the program eventually slipped into dumpster fire status complete with NCAA penalties.
While the public embarrassment sucked out loud, O'Brien's activities paved the way for something special..
2004-05: THAD MATTA
Most of you remember this era clearly. After arriving at Ohio State via Xavier, Matta took a team ineligible for postseason play to 20 wins including an upset of then No. 1 and undefeated Illinois in a program-defining win.
Ohio State finished just 6th in the league that season (8-8) but Matta's guidance had lifted the clouds over the program brought on by O'Brien's misdeeds.
Matta would reach the Dance's 2nd round in year two after capturing his first B1G title (26-6, 10-4) and year three was even better as the Buckeyes again won the conference championship (34-4, 15-1) and made it all the way to the NCAA title game before falling Florida.
2017-18: CHRIS HOLTMANN
With just those aforementioned nine scholarship players on the roster, one of which recently shed his walk-on status, it's looking like year one of the Holtmann era will be a rocky ride.
That said, it's a necessary evil for a program hanging on for dear life before his arrival.
With his assistants in place he just needs to find a new strength and conditioning guy after he chose to not to retain Matta leftover, Dave Richardson.
While at least one prominent local beat reporter believes Richardson was a convenient fall guy, I couldn't disagree more. The logic from the reporter was that players who wanted to get stronger got stronger. My response to that would be do you think Urban Meyer's strength guy, Mickey Marotti, accepts that type of mind-set from a football player?
Bottom line, year one will require a case of Rolaids but it should not define Holtmann's tenure based on existing factors and what we've seen from inaugural seasons of past coaches.
There's simply too much to fix.
