Holtmann reflects on ‘gut-wrenching’ decision to leave Butler for OSU

It seems like a no-brainer.

More money, increased national exposure and a seat at the table in the Big Ten would figure to make a switch from Butler to Ohio State a deal that few head coaches could refuse, but Chris Holtmann did.

At first.

“I Initially was a little bit standoffish, and they took that as me saying, ‘No,’” Holtmann told WISH-TV’s Charlie Clifford Monday. “In reality, probably I was, initially.”

The deal came together though, and even without a postseason to end last year, Holtmann has led the Buckeyes to four more wins in his first three seasons than the program had in the three years prior.

But frankly, to say that Holtmann hasn’t looked back would be a lie.

“It was a gut-wrenching decision, one that I went back and forth on,” Holtmann said. “But you’re really talking about, I was contacted on a Monday I believe, and really pressed to make a decision in about two days after initial contact.”

Up to that point in the summer of 2017, Holtmann had been turning heads with his results at Butler. His 2016-17 team started the year unranked before entering the NCAA Tournament a No. 4 seed and advancing to the Sweet 16.

Holtmann became just the second coach in program history to make three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances, winning at least one game in each season, and he did it in his first three years at the helm.

In fact, it was Holtmann’s first taste of head coaching at that level, having only previously served as a Division I head coach for Gardner-Webb from 2010 to 2013.

You might have suspected Holtmann was enjoying himself at Butler, and you’d be correct.

“It really was some of the best years of our lives as a family and certainly some of the best years of our lives professionally,” Holtmann said. “Those that know it and have been around it, it’s just a very special, unique, tight-knit environment.”

Those factors combined to create a situation difficult for Holtmann to walk away from, even with the offer of considerably more resources at his disposal at Ohio State.

Holtmann said the hurried timeframe didn’t make things any easier.

“Those decisions are typically life-changing decisions that you’re forced to make in a very compressed amount of time. So instead of it being –– in other employment circles –– several weeks where you’re getting to know each other, in this case it was a matter of a couple days,” Holtmann said.

The Kentucky native said he never expected to be the head coach at a major college basketball program. In fact, Holtmann said during his first forays into college coaching after his own playing career at Taylor University –– an NAIA program –– his goal was to land a gig as a head coach for a small Division III college after 10 or so years.

In a likely world, Holtmann said, he’d still be at Gardner-Webb or another smaller institution, but he always readied himself for the chance that bigger things might come his way.

“The reality is, we don’t know when opportunity is going to strike. We don’t,” Holtmann said. “But what we can do in the midst of that is we can prepare and we can work and we can prepare ourselves and who we are as people and whatever profession you choose, to be our very best, so that if and when opportunity strikes, you’re prepared for that moment and you’re confident and poised in your ability to perform at that time.”

After coaching well over a decade in what he called the “minor leagues” of college basketball at places like Geneva College, Ohio University and his alma mater, Holtmann might be a small school guy at heart.

He hasn’t done half bad at the next rung up, though.

“There is no question that I do look back at times and say, ‘Wow, this has been such a unique path and unique journey that I’ve been on,’” Holtmann said. “So different than the normal one where maybe a guy is on this trajectory his entire life.”