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2017-2018 Ohio State Men's Basketball (24-7, 15-3, #2 Seed in B1G Tourney)

For some crazy reason I thought most folks wrote this season off before it began as pretty much win whatever you can but were banking on the 18-19 season to see how Holtsman does... Did I miss the boat on the raised expectations?
You're right. CJ & Kaleb both scoring more than expected has seemed to make the team look better than people expected. But they are still a year or two from the point where fans should be expecting a return to the top-25. They are scoring at a good clip when they don't turn it over, but TOs have been more of a problem than they were in recent years. The good part is usually teams are able to cut down on TOs somewhat as the season wears on, the bad part is they shouldn't be making some of the TOs in the first place. There is a lot to work on for this team, areas where you could easily see some improvement. It's really early in the season still, and this season never was going to be a banner year, so no reason for panic.
 
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OSU basketball is like many of these delusional SEC football jobs, many think it's better than it is.
One bad loss doesn't make or break a basketball coach or program. It's very different from football. Not sure what kind of success you are telling OSU fans they shouldn't expect, but I don't appreciate your condescending implication.
 
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Losing a game when you are up by 15 with 5 minutes left? I don't care what your expectations are for the season, that is a gut-punch. Then, in the post-game interview, he's just kind of shrugging his shoulders and going through the motions.



Now, do I think a one-point loss to Butler is a portent of awful things to come? No, in the big picture, that's about where this team is. It's a reasonable outcome, and if you told me before that the final score would be what it was, I would have accepted that, especially considering Potter was useless all weekend because of the ankle. However, this team, for all of its flaws, had a chance to do something good, something to build on, and they totally pissed down their legs....the players and the coaches.

Every new basketball coach at Ohio State that I've ever seen has had some initial success, by means of an injection of energy and enthusiasm into the program. Go back and look at the early success of Matta, O'Brien, Ayers, Gary Williams, and Eldon Miller. They all had it. It's not that hard at Ohio State to come in and get a little bit of excitement going. It's hard to sustain.

I guess I will now lower my expectations for this season. I was expecting Holtmann to coach them up a bit.
 
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Losing a game when you are up by 15 with 5 minutes left? I don't care what your expectations are for the season, that is a gut-punch. Then, in the post-game interview, he's just kind of shrugging his shoulders and going through the motions.



Now, do I think a one-point loss to Butler is a portent of awful things to come? No, in the big picture, that's about where this team is. It's a reasonable outcome, and if you told me before that the final score would be what it was, I would have accepted that, especially considering Potter was useless all weekend because of the ankle. However, this team, for all of its flaws, had a chance to do something good, something to build on, and they totally pissed down their legs....the players and the coaches.

Every new basketball coach at Ohio State that I've ever seen has had some initial success, by means of an injection of energy and enthusiasm into the program. Go back and look at the early success of Matta, O'Brien, Ayers, Gary Williams, and Eldon Miller. They all had it. It's not that hard at Ohio State to come in and get a little bit of excitement going. It's hard to sustain.

I guess I will now lower my expectations for this season. I was expecting Holtmann to coach them up a bit.


How many of the previous coaches had 7 worthwhile players on their rosters? This season was always going to be an uphill battle. Some of these players on the roster are playing their best basketball since arriving on campus.
 
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For some crazy reason I thought most folks wrote this season off before it began as pretty much win whatever you can but were banking on the 18-19 season to see how Holtsman does... Did I miss the boat on the raised expectations?

No raised expectations on my end, but blowing a 15 point lead with less than 4 minutes to play is frustrating.
 
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Losing a game when you are up by 15 with 5 minutes left? I don't care what your expectations are for the season, that is a gut-punch. Then, in the post-game interview, he's just kind of shrugging his shoulders and going through the motions.
I cannot quote your entire post because I do not agree with everything that you stated but I do agree with the above. I would like to see a little more fire in the belly from him. I mean you even see that from Kz……i. I also did not appreciate his soft talk on Butler prior to the game. I know that he recruited many of players on the Butler team but he is now at Ohio State so he needs to get over it and fast. The last 5 minutes was a joke. There was no way Ohio State should have lost that game. I know that screaming and yelling does not win games but it sure as hell might have helped in the last five minutes of that game.

I would also like to know if he has ever heard of a timeout when his team is having problems with a full-court press.
 
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Botching that game to Butler hurt.....definitely one they gave away, and got badly exposed for what we knew they are lacking.

This is definitely a write off year though. I just want them to avoid losses to horrible teams and win some of the 50/50 ones

I'm not terribly impressed with anyone in the B1G so far besides Sparty & Minnesota. A decent showing record wise in B1G play is definitely possible.
 
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not if they play and coach like they did not in the last 5 minutes of the Butler game. I know there were some bad losses last year but this game against Butler was embarrassing and should have never happened and it does not help the program going forward at all.

1 bad collapse doesn't make a program. Butler is at least a decent team. If this starts happening against the Rutgers and Nebraskas of the world then yea it's a bit embarrassing.
 
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This is gonna be a rough quick week for this team

Play Clemson on Wednesday. Clemson is not very good, so this one is winnable

then the dumb 2 Big 10 games in early December against Wisconsin on Saturday and then against scUM on Monday.

If they come out of these 3 with 2 wins it would be a great success.
 
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People not liking Holtman because he is "blah,"

I thought he was a good get frankly.
I only watched the first half of the Butler game but I thought the team far and away looked better than they did last year coaching wise. Number one thing I saw is they actually pass the goddamn ball looking for GOOD shots. No more passing the ball at the top of the key 47 times only to jack up a contested three at the end of the shot clock. Not much iso ball either. From the little footage I've been able to see of them this year they're an infinitely more watchable team than the last couple of teams we've had. They just aren't that talented. Definitely not even as talented as the team last year or the year before. Sure would have been nice if we could have hung onto Beverly though.
 
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I only watched the first half of the Butler game but I thought the team far and away looked better than they did last year coaching wise. Number one thing I saw is they actually pass the goddamn ball looking for GOOD shots. No more passing the ball at the top of the key 47 times only to jack up a contested three at the end of the shot clock. Not much iso ball either. From the little footage I've been able to see of them this year they're an infinitely more watchable team than the last couple of teams we've had. They just aren't that talented. Definitely not even as talented as the team last year or the year before. Sure would have been nice if we could have hung onto Beverly though.

They are better coached and more watchable than the past 2 years.

You can only do so much in RE:Lack of ball handlers though.....Holtmann was definitely dealt a crappy hand in regards to that coming in Up to him now to fix it in recruiting though. I don't put that on him this year though. There is only so much you can do in that aspect with what you have.
 
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