This is really an article about basketball attendance.
It won't seem like one, because I'm going to spend a lot of time talking about the Big Ten Men's Basketball Coach of the Year Award, but in truth this is really about how people need to show up for games and do their absolute best to make the Schott a bearable place to watch the game of basketball. But I'll get to that in a second.
First, let's get this out of the way: Chris Holtmann, barring some insane and at this point kind-of-hilarious-in-an-ironic-way collapse of the men's basketball team, is going to be named coach of the year in the Big Ten. His only real competition for the award is from Tom Izzo at Michigan State (meh) and Matt Painter at Purdue (great team and great coach, but... meh!), but should Ohio State continue to play some still-surprisingly excellent basketball, it's Holtmann's to lose.
Look, the narrative is just too juicy. Holtmann, stepping in at the worst possible time, with an unbelievably thin roster that was predicted to crash and burn by almost everyone, goes ahead and challenges for the Big Ten title anyway, and turns Keita Bates-Diop into an unstoppable hellbeast that might end up winning a ______ of the Year Award himself. For fun, here's where the expectations were sitting before the season started:
Buckeyes coach Chris Holtmann is only a few months into his new gig after leaving Butler. The roster former head coach Thad Matta left behind includes three upperclassmen projected to score at least 11 points per game (Jae’Sean Tate, Keita Bates-Diop, Kam Williams), but it’s dubious whether that’ll be enough for Ohio State to improve on the seven conference wins it posted last season.
12. Ohio State
Two shaky seasons and the loss of the entire 2015 recruiting class led to the end of the Thad Matta era. Chris Holtmann left more talent at Butler than he inherits at OSU.
13. Ohio State. My, how the mighty have fallen. Chris Holtmann arrives from Butler to begin remaking the Buckeyes, who missed the last two Big Dances under Thad Matta. Jae’Sean Tate, Keita Bates-Diop and C.J. Jackson need to lead the way. Please. Be patient. There is work to do.
Ohio State – Jae’Sean Tate returns, who led the team in scoring last season, but not much production returns outside him. A change at the helm also impacted who OSU brought in this year. Rebuilding year to say the least.
The difference between expectations and reality makes for a hell of a story, and more specifically, it's the same story that allowed Richard Pitino to win the award last season after leading the Minnesota Golden Gophers to 24 wins and a top five Big Ten finish.
So while Painter could get the award, it seems unlikely. That'll be some pretty cool validation not just for Holtmann but for Gene Smith a hiring process that at times seemed completely haphazard and unintentional. Thad Matta won that award three times, in 2006, 2007, and 2010, so... a pretty good start for Holtmann! Everyone is happy!
Especially me. I wasn't able to talk to Holtmann during our interview with him this week, but I've spoken to him briefly before, and in that five or ten minutes and subsequent 19 wins, I have gone all in on the Chris Holtmann experience.
I will grant that this is at least kind of foolish. Holtmann is really no more than a semi-known quantity at Ohio State who is currently enjoying the fruits of a roster that already had a lot of very apparent potential and a Big Ten conference that is having a decidedly down year. Plus, that Pitino thing? Yeah, Goldy is 3-8 in the Big Ten this season. That could easily be the Buckeyes if they can't find a way to replace Keita Bates-Diop's production should he leave. Our own Dan Hope made many of these same observations earlier this week when he compared Holtmann to Indiana's Archie Miller, who Ohio State fans (and yours truly) would've fawned over had he ended up in Columbus.
But that's also not the point! I am excited about Chris Holtmann's probable Big Ten Coach of the Year win because of what it means for the program as a whole, and because it's time to be irrationally excited about Ohio State basketball.
So far that kind of irrational excitement has been sorely lacking. Attendance for games has been tepid outside of some of the absolute highest profile games on the schedule, and while in theory that's understandable because of the hangover from several down seasons in a row, at this point if you're not at least excited about the idea of what this team and this coach represents, then there probably isn't a whole hell of a lot that will get you excited about Ohio State basketball period.
That means that even if Chris Holtmann isn't the basketball version of the Jim Tressel hire, Ohio State fans should at least ask like he is; not because I'm perfectly certain that he'll be able to recreate the kind of success that the Buckeyes are having on a year-in, year-out basis, but instead because there is a time for complete irrational exuberance, and this is it.
So go to the games, assume Big Ten accolades, and get pissed if the Buckeyes don't beat another top five team or fail to make the Elite Eight this season. High expectations can be a burden for a coach and a program, but we've seen that in the last several seasons that a complete lack thereof can be much, much worse.
