Just over 24 hours before his Buckeyes play their next game against Indiana on Tuesday night (7 p.m., ESPN2), Ohio State men's basketball coach Chris Holtmann joined the airwaves of 97.1 The Fan to discuss the latest developments surrounding Ohio State basketball and take calls from Buckeyes fans.
Coming off of an 82-79 loss in their previous game against Penn State, Holtmann says the Buckeyes need to play better defense on Tuesday to get back in the win column against the Hoosiers.
"We need to much better tomorrow night defensively than what we were against Penn State," Holtmann said Monday.
Holtmann acknowledged that it's tough to win a game when an opponent shoots the ball the way Penn State did – making 28-of-48 shots from the field (58.3%) and 11-of-14 shots from three (78.6%) – so he doesn't want to overreact to Thursday's defensive struggles.
That said, Holtmann said the Buckeyes did change their defense to try to put more emphasis on defending Penn State's Tony Carr, but it didn't work the way they had hoped, as Carr scored 28 – including the game-winning buzzer-beater three.
Holtmann also said the Buckeyes need to spend more time practicing their zone defense, but their primary focus has been on playing man-to-man defense.
"Man-to-man is going to be what we're going to try to consistently play," Holtmann said.
Here's what else you need to know from Holtmann's latest Monday night radio show, on which he provided updates on his recruiting class and praised both one of his own players, Jae'Sean Tate, as well as women's basketball player Kelsey Mitchell.
- With five days between games, Holtmann said he and his staff did a lot of travel between Friday and Sunday on the recruiting trail. Holtmann said recruiting is a "daily process," even in season, but he said the coaching staff is close to reaching its limit of NCAA-allotted days for recruiting players in person.
- Holtmann said he and his staff are still playing catch-up on the recruiting trail, because of the number of years in advance that relationships with recruits are built, but he believes he and his staff have made up a lot of ground.
- On the 2018 recruiting class, which currently consists of Luther Muhammad, Jaedon LeDee, Duane Washington and Justin Ahrens: "We feel really good about this current class we have coming in. All things considered, we're thrilled with the class we have."
- Holtmann still expects the Buckeyes to add one or two more players in the 2018 recruiting class, but said the staff's focus has been on recruiting for the 2019 and 2020 classes.
- Asked whether he noticed whether Indiana is doing anything differently schematically this year, Holtmann says he sees the Hoosiers a few different things on both offense and defense. "I think defensively, they're playing really, really well," Holtmann said of the Hoosiers, who he says are playing almost exclusively man-to-man instead of mixing in zone like they did previously with Tom Crean as coach. Offensively, the Hoosiers are playing more inside-out than they had in the past.
- Holtmann on playing an Indiana team that included Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo while he was coaching Gardner-Webb: "That didn't end well for the Runnin' Bulldogs."
- Holtmann says he believes his players have a good approach and moved on quickly from the Penn State loss to prepare for Indiana. "Coaches feel losses more than we celebrate wins," so it wasn't as easy for Holtmann to move on.
- "It's important," Holtmann said, for the Buckeyes to come up with different looks over the course of the season so that opponents see something different than what they've seen on film. "You need to also have other guys step up and make plays ... You can take away a Keita (Bates-Diop), you can take away (Jae'Sean Tate), but can someone else step up and make an important play or have an important game?"
- C.J. Jackson's emergence as a third scoring option has been key to the Buckeyes' offensive efficiency.
- "I think we have to play a little tougher at times. I think they were tougher and more physical than us," Holtmann said of playing Penn State.
- A few Buckeyes have been battling the flu, but Holtmann said they are "fairly healthy right now." Holtmann said the Buckeyes announced that Bates-Diop would be questionable for Thursday's game against Penn State because they did not think Bates-Diop – who ended up scoring 25 – would be able to play after he was up all night throwing up the previous night.
- Holtmann said he is not tied to benching players when they have two fouls in the first half, but if the game is close, the Buckeyes will try to keep those players on the bench.
- "I was probably as livid as I've been," Holtmann said in reference to the fouls that were called early in the second half against Penn State, but tried to hold his emotions in because he felt his team was already too emotional.
- Holtmann believes Tate is the player on his team that doesn't get enough credit because of the way Bates-Diop has "busted onto the scene" this year. "I've had other coaches say they've seen him play as well or better as they've ever seen him play."
- "Our students and our fans, Buckeye Nation, they have really lifted us in a lot of games." Holtmann would like to see larger crowds, but he hopes that if the team continues playing hard, Ohio State fans will decide that it's a product worth paying for.
- Holtmann revealed that part of his gameday routine is buying two Boston Cream doughnuts from Tim Hortons in the morning.
- "Our game is all about positive momentum, and that really bleeds into recruiting," Holtmann said in regards to whether he believes the Buckeyes' recent success is helping them on the recruiting trail.
- Holtmann says his assistant coaches are responsible for keeping track of how Ohio State's incoming recruits are doing during their senior seasons, with each assistant coaches taking responsibility for the recruits they "ran point on" recruiting.
- Holtmann has seen Ahrens, LeDee, Muhammad and Washington already build a strong connection with one another.
- The Buckeyes are planning to do an international trip this summer, as they are allowed to do once every four years, but have not yet decided where they will be traveling yet.
- On Kelsey Mitchell breaking the Big Ten scoring record: "It's outstanding. I think all of us that have the privilege to watch her perform have just been amazed at her talent, her ability and competitiveness ... Congrats to her on an incredible career."
