Chris Holtmann has spent quite a bit of time over the airwaves of 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan throughout his collegiate coaching career.
From weekly visits with Dan Dakich when he was at Butler, to hopping on The Fan Morning Show Friday with Jeff Rickard and Big Joe Staysniak, the guy in charge at Ohio State is a good dude.
He is absolutely not underestimating the Indiana Hoosiers either.
Even though IU needed double OT to defeat Northwestern earlier this week, the Buckeyes are a club that fell to the Wildcats earlier this year. And more than just about anyone in the country, Holtmann knows you can’t have consistent slip ups in the Big Ten if you want a chance in March.
“It’s hard to win in league play in general,” Holtmann said. “When we lost to Northwestern they were on a roll and they beat us. It’s hard to win anywhere in this league. For the rest of the season, everybody we play is a tournament team. There’s no other conference in the country like that.”
As we’ve historically seen as well, it doesn’t take much momentum for a team to propel yourself on a red hot ride in March.
Now about the Hoosiers; Can they pull off another enormous road win?
Ohio State has been steadily climbing the ranks all season, but IU has been up and down. Even with the inconsistency, there’s one particular guy Holtmann has his eyes on from the opposing sideline.
“I think a guy that all of us coaches who follow the game really appreciate is Race Thompson,” Holtmann mentioned. “He’s a really good player. And obviously he plays alongside an elite talent in Trayce Jackson-Davis. Sometimes you can get overshadowed like that. They’ve got depth too with a number of guys who can come off the bench and really be a factor.”
To say the least, it’s a MONSTER day of basketball around our state tomorrow.
The Buckeyes and Hoosiers will get it going at Noon in Columbus.
Tune into The Fan Morning Show weekdays from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM.
