mendensa
Legend
I would love to see that but I'm not sure it's feasible, not when football is so clearly #1 for the university and its fans and alumni. Peak Thad was nearly as good as it gets for OSU basketball and even that doesn't really match what Tressell, Urban, and now Day have been doing.
I guess the real question there is what does OSU-football-level-success even look like for basketball? The blue-bloods and top programs in basketball don't have the same kind of consistently high level of success that the top football programs have, there is just way too much parity in college basketball and our NC-deciding Tournament is a field of 68 where one game of off-shooting, bad luck, bad calls, bad match-up, the other team playing out of their minds, etc. can send you home early, regardless of how good you were in the regular season.
Holtmann does have a good performance baseline going here, though many might not care to admit that. People scoff at the 20-win season thing but only 2 other P5 programs have done that every season in the time that Holtmann has been at OSU, and Holtmann typically schedules a tougher than average OOC and the B1G has had a lot of competitive depth most of the seasons he has been at OSU. He also makes the Dance every season, and that to me is possibly the most important fundamental criteria. Because anything can happen in the Dance, but anything can't happen for you there if you're not in it.
We all want to see better high-end results, though, that is a given. We've been sitting on that corner without quite being able to turn it into a notable achievement, be it a conference championship, conference tournament championship, or S16 (or better) appearance. And under Holtmann we've been close to all of those things at various points, but no cigar. It's certainly frustrating but at the same time it is important to have perspective and be realistic about how the program is doing in the larger scheme of things. Hopefully the up-tick in recruiting will help lead to the steps forward we all want to see.
Agreed, you just took the time to articulate what I was thinking. I don't think anyone with reason is expecting the Buckeye hoopsters to make the final 4 every year..... that's what our expectations are for the Buckeye football program though. But bc of the sheer amount of teams in D1 basketball alone, that just isn't realistic for even the blue bloods of the sport. But being near the top of the B1G annually and making deep runs in the tournament consistently isn't too much to ask.
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