No-Brainer: Ohio State Fired Chris Holtmann With The Program At Rock Bottom, Haven't Won A Road Game In Over A Year

By all accounts Chris Holtmann is a good dude who had success as a head coach. But this is a no-brainer. Ohio State HAD to fire Chris Holtmann, no matter how much money he was owed. They've hit rock bottom. Ohio State wasn't a blue blood, but they were always relevant. Thad Matta had them consistently in the talk for 1 seeds, national title contenders and produced the only college basketball podcaster in the world who could hit 1,000 free throws in a night on video. Not too shabby of a resume. 

But look at where Ohio State is now. They haven't won a road game in over a year. That's almost impossible to do when you play Penn State, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, etc all in that time. You gotta win one of them, even if, yes, winning on the road is tough. You're still Ohio State. You still have enough history, a good enough recruiting base, everything like that to consistently being fine. 

This is also a good lesson for everyone screaming it's time to fire a coach. A couple years ago Kentucky fans wanted Chris Holtmann. They deemed him next in line whenever Cal is gone. Whoops! Now he starts what should be a pretty crazy carousel in the college basketball world. There's a chance Michigan opens up. You have a job in Ohio State that's a damn good job. Look at the names already out there: 

Mick going back to the state of Ohio would be the funniest outcome. Remember how people freaked out over him taking UCLA? Feels like we could just run back a lot of stuff from that again. You gotta try and get Sean Miller though. He's a top-5 coach in America. He can easily turn that program around and recruit just fine. Holtmann will likely get another job if he wants it, but Ohio State is a damn good job that is now at rock bottom. 

Sometimes to go forward, you have to go back. 

Rich Schultz. Getty Images.