Gene Smith didn't want to do it, didn't want to fire the guy he hired . But the Ohio State athletic director felt he had no choice, so he dismissed coach Chris Holtmann Wednesday because the men's basketball program needed new leadership.
Was there another way out? If so, Smith did not see it, though one possible escape hatch stood only a few hundred feet away. As Smith became emotional in the lower-level Value City Arena interview room, saying how much it pained him to let Holtmann go after seven seasons, OSU women's basketball coach Kevin McGuff was one level up, preparing the Buckeyes to play Nebraska.
Not long ago, McGuff essentially was Holtmann. Hired by Smith to replace Jim Foster in 2013, the expectation was for McGuff to take the Buckeyes to higher ground. They were really good under Foster (279-82; .773), winning six Big Ten titles, but also struggled to go deep into the NCAA Tournament, advancing as far as the Sweet 16 only twice in 11 seasons.
The McGuff and Holtmann situations are not identical, but Smith could have pointed to McGuff's first seven seasons to make a case that Holtmann deserved the chance to make a similar turnaround.
McGuff arrived in 2013 but soon learned, like Holtmann, that it is not easy matching the overall success of your predecessor, much less topping it. Over McGuff's first seven seasons, the Buckeyes went 158-78 (.669) with two Big Ten titles and four NCAA appearances, none of which saw OSU get past the Sweet 16.
Then things got worse. Ohio State took a postseason ban in 20-21 due to NCAA violations, yet Smith stayed the course. He saw something in McGuff others did not, and it has paid off. The Buckeyes tied for first in the conference in 2021-22 and last season advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1993.
Smith could have sent McGuff packing after seven seasons, and many thought he should have, but the 54-year-old has turned it around. Ohio State is ranked No. 2 and has won 12 straight games .
More: Oller: Ohio State fires Chris Holtmann; what should fans expect from his replacement?
Instead, Smith laid out Wednesday what he expects from the men's program.
"Be in the hunt. Periodically win the (Big Ten) championship and go deep into the postseason," he said. "That hasn't changed. That hasn't been accomplished. We have to do better."
Smith could have spared Holtmann, and while I think cutting ties was beneficial to both coach and program – the marriage was not working – it is interesting the AD did not give the men's coach as much latitude as he did McGuff.
Is more better? We're about to find out. The Ohio High School Athletic Association voted Thursday to expand the number of divisions in seven sports to increase competition and mitigate disparities in enrollment.
Or, depending on one's perspective, to be able to give out more participation ribbons.
Some will say that going from four to seven divisions in boys and girls basketball, baseball, girls volleyball and softball, and from three to five divisions in boys and girls soccer, is too much watering down of competition. And that it further weakens a world already bent on making life as soft as possible.
I get that. But I don't see expansion as some existential threat to sports society. Young athletes on team sports simply get more opportunities to taste success – and deal with defeat – at the postseason level of high school participation.
What raises my eyebrow is that expansion is limited to team sports. Track and field and wrestling remain at three divisions each. As OHSAA media spokesman Tim Stried explained it, "Those two sports are 'individual sports,' which are a really different thing to handle. Several layers to those types of sports."
He's not wrong, but different or not the same aim for "fairness" needs to apply. Let's hope the OHSAA can figure it out so the playing field is leveled across the board.
"Knock on wood." – incoming Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork, telling The Dispatch he hopes he never has to go through an NCAA investigation like he experienced while serving as Mississippi AD.
Recently attended a jazz club show to hear … jazz. Duh. Instead, I got some great jazz mixed with a earful of yakety-yak coming from two couples seated nearby. I should have politely shushed them. My bad. But should I have needed to? A jazz show is not background music for your loud conversations. Chill out and listen.
Not every invention hits like a hammer. But heated car seats? Big impact. Yes, a luxury item, but they came standard on my Honda CR-V and I'm not sure I can ever go back. Call me spoiled. But also warmer.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State basketball fires Chris Holtmann after seven seasons
