To steal thoughts from a separate Buckeyes forum offering up a postmortem of Holtmann’s regular season, one thing that was pointed out is how college basketball as of late has a way of making just about anybody look bad on any given year. For example, to the OSU fans wanting Holtmann replaced with names like Iowa State’s Otzelberger or Arkansas’ Musselman – both have really hit a wall throughout conference play this season.
In the national picture big names like Boeheim has Syracuse unable to reach 20 wins in each of the past four seasons. Tom Izzo seems on the wane during the same period. Oregon’s coach, Dana Altman, usually good for at least a S16 run every other season, has hit the same recent rut. And despite his recruiting not dipping, John Calipari’s past three seasons comparatively underachieve.
Several Buckeyes posters name Collins at Northwestern as a worthwhile replacement to Holtmann, and yes, Collins is winning, but after how many years of losing? Someone pointed to Matt Painter as the Big Ten's only coach who, year by year, has a dependable handle on winning appreciably more conference games than he loses.
