Amid a 14-11 start that has them near the bottom of the Big Ten standings and basically needing to win the Big Ten Tournament just reach the NCAA Tournament, Ohio State has decided to part ways with head coach Chris Holtmann.
Holtmann took the Buckeyes to four straight NCAA Tournaments after being hired in 2017 following a stellar career at Butler. He even led them to First Round wins in three of those trips.
But after a 13th place finish in 2023 and a 16-19 overall record, the Buckeyes have now failed to win a road game against Big Ten opposition for 13 months.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Holtmann is going to be getting a nice golden parachute to the tune of a $12.8 million buyout.
“Ohio State announces Holtmann is due $12.8 million in buyout money,” Thamel wrote.
Holtmann’s seven-year tenure at Ohio State ends with a record of 137-85 overall but just 67-64 within the Big Ten Conference. His teams never finished higher than second in the regular season.
In the interim, Jake Diebler is slated to take over as interim head coach of the Buckeyes for the remainder of the season. That’s six games plus the Big Ten Tournament for Diebler to make his case to either become the full-time head coach or at least be retained on the staff by the next one.
Four of these final six games will be at home in the Value City Arena.
Their next game will be on February 18 against No. 2 Purdue. The game will air on CBS.