They also fail to realize that Matta was a unicorn. His run from ~ 2006-14 was not the norm here. He also did all of that in an era that's pretty different from today.
It was very smart of him to make sure Loyola couldn’t make their free throws. Genius maybe? No, probably not genius. But boy that was smart.
it was very smart of you to think that loyola making 7 more free throws would have turned a 13-point loss into a win. genius maybe? no, probably not genius. but boy that was smart.
He wasn’t the winner of OSU’s lone national championship in basketball and he only made it to one championship game. So no, he wasn’t a unicorn. But he did show that it could still be done. Matta’s health issues affected his recruiting and coaching there at the end he had to go. I was calling for him to be replaced months before Gene got around to it. If Holtmann turns out to be a guy who can win championships then Gene got lucky that Indiana didn’t grab him first.
Again, Oral Roberts says hello. The fact is that Holtmann has lost a whole bunch of games he had no business losing. It’s tedious when he wins one he should win and the apologists come out and say, “See?” The record is the record and one game doesn’t change it. Holtmann has had some big wins we didn’t expect but he’s also had some really big losses we didn’t expect too. Those are undeniable facts. If he doesn’t win today then he will still have never made it past the first weekend of the tournament in his career. Hell, even Rick Barnes managed to do that once (although in fairness he had more attempts).
You keep focusing on the tournament, while blatantly ignoring that CH also has failed to win either the B1G regular season or tournament, and he's been here 5 years now. And the closest he came to that regular season title was with Matta recruits leading the team. I'm not saying fire him, but he needs to approach next season like he needs to earn his salary by achieving something more than the average (for OSU) seasons he has been turning out every year with his players. The continual focus on getting 2-3 transfers every year is stupid and holds the program back over time because he's building high floor, medium ceiling teams instead of trying to put together a real national contender by getting more young prospects who are going to blossom over the course of years. I'm not saying avoid transfers altogether, but he needs to rely less on transfers, and do a better job in finding more guys who have high ceilings and not just opt for the easy plug and play low-hanging fruit.The #FireHoltmann tag at Twitter is a regular Algonquin Roundtable. Lots of really big mad over there. I'm sure Gene Smith will get right on it.
Wins 20+ every year
Goes to the Dance every year
Doesn't embarrass the University (don't underestimate that part)
It's not about wanting more - every fan likes winning. But OSU is not going to fire a guy who ticks all of those boxes, just because he hasn't made a March Madness run yet.
