Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann: 'I'm not going to Notre Dame'
Adam JardyRumors of Ohio State men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann considering the job at Notre Dame are just that – rumors.
That’s according to Holtmann, who since the Fighting Irish announced in mid-January that coach Mike Brey would not return, has been linked as a potential candidate to the job. Tuesday morning, a report from New York Post columnist Dick Weiss said that the Irish were "reportedly zeroing in on Chris Holtmann of Ohio State as new coach."
It's set off another wave of speculation on Holtmann's future, but as he works the recruiting trail for the 2023-24 season the Ohio State coach said he's not leaving.
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Chris Holtmann's future
“I’m not going to Notre Dame,” Holtmann told The Dispatch in the wake of Weiss' tweet. “I stand by what I publicly said. I’m committed to being here.”
Last spring, Holtmann and Ohio State agreed to a three-year contract extension that binds the two sides together until the 2027-28 season. The deal gave Holtmann a bump in pay to around $3.5 million annually and guaranteed that, should Ohio State opt to fire him, it would owe him the remaining balance on his contract.
Should Holtmann leave for another job, his buyout is $2.5 million until this summer, when it will drop by $500,000 and do so again each subsequent year. That was a significant increase from his previous contract, which would have required paying the total amount of severance it would owe his three assistant coaches at the time of his departure – a figure that changes, but one that in general has been in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That attractive financial situation, coupled with his run of having never missed the NCAA Tournament as a high-major coach entering the 2022-23 season, made him an attractive candidate for high-profile job openings and helped lead to the extension.
As the Buckeyes were in the midst of a streak of 14 losses in 15 games, one that would remove them from the NCAA Tournament and NIT pictures by season’s end, athletic director Gene Smith told The Dispatch that Ohio State remained committed to Holtmann, in part because of the belief in the direction of the program given the promise of this year’s freshman class and a signed 2023 class rated No. 6 nationally by 247Sports.com.
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“I’m confident in what Chris is doing,” Smith told The Dispatch in a brief interview prior to a Feb. 2 game against Wisconsin. “Chris is our coach of the future. He’s doing an outstanding job.”
That has not stopped speculation that Holtmann could consider making a move to Notre Dame for a fresh start, although the coach dismissed those thoughts following a Feb. 26 game against Illinois.
Asked if he was committed to returning to Ohio State presuming the administration wanted him to, Holtmann said, “Yes, absolutely. I love it here. I love it here, and Gene and I have been very open about our plan in terms of moving forward and what our plan was after last year with somewhat of a rebuilt roster, what that was going to look like, how young we were gonna be, our commitment to playing young guys to backing it up with another young class.”
As a follow-up, Holtmann was asked again: Is that a firm commitment on your part to stay at Ohio State?
“Absolutely,” he said.