After huge win, Ohio State's Holtmann shared testimonial for his assistant coach Johnson
On Thursday night, Ohio State wore special T-shirts during pregame warmups for its game at Iowa in the program’s continuing campaign to raise awareness of social inequality issues.
On the front, the black T-shirts said “This game is no secret.” On the back was the word “Eracism.”
Following his team’s landmark 89-85 win over the eighth-ranked Hawkeyes, OSU coach Chris Holtmann spent some of his postgame press conference explaining the inspiration for those shirts. He then also took a minute or so to provide a testimonial for his assistant coach Terry Johnson, whom he hopes will have opportunities to become a college head coach.
Holtmann saw one of his assistants, Mike Schrage, leave in the spring of 2019 to become the head coach at Elon University. Ryan Pedon, a current OSU assistant, has also been approached with head coaching opportunities in his time on Holtmann’s staff.
In his comments Thursday, Holtmann said Johnson, who also served as an assistant with him at Butler, is deserving of such an opportunity on well.
“We have a guy on our staff, Terry Johnson, who I believe in at an unbelievably high level,” Holtmann said. “I believe he deserves an opportunity. Terry has handled our defense from Butler through Ohio State. He’s been a part of every team we’ve had that’s gone to the NCAA Tournament.
“He’s got an unbelievable relationship with guys. Part of the reason I feel compelled to work so hard in this job is to help guys have opportunities. I really believe that he deserves an opportunity. Part of what we’re doing with this particular game … is bringing awareness hopefully for increased opportunities for African-American coaches in our profession.
“Particularly, I think Terry Johnson is deserving of one. I appreciate you allowing for me to indulge for a minute on that point.”
Pedon has coordinated OSU’s offense, while Johnson and Jake Diebler have worked together on defense and Diebler also involved heavily in recruiting. Holtmann said Johnson is not the kind of person to toot his own horn.
“He is not a self promoter and in this business sometimes if you’re not a self promoter sometimes it gets you,” Holtmann said. “But he is a guy who is an excellent basketball coach. Anybody who has played for Terry Johnson or coached with him feels the same way.”
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