Chris Holtmann doesn’t know who his team will be taking on in its season-opener.

As of Wednesday, the college basketball season is just two weeks away.

That has been the story of 2020 thus far: there appears to be a plan in place-- until there isn’t one.

After pulling out of the Crossover Classic last week due to the high positivity rate in South Dakota, Holtmann and his staff are still searching day and night for an opponent to kick off the season with.

“It was a tournament we really wanted to play in. That’s kinda why we stayed in it as long as we did. It has been a challenge,” Holtmann said on Wednesday. “I would say it’s probably been-- right now, about 70 percent of my work in days and nights has been scheduling."

The early-season tournament would have been Ohio State’s first since 2017. It presented the opportunity to take on three consecutive high-level teams.

Now, per the Ohio State athletics website, the Buckeyes’ first scheduled game is Dec. 2 against Morehead State-- over a week after Nov. 25, the official start date to the college basketball season.

There are only four official games listed on the schedule: home against Morehead State and Alabama A&M, away at Notre Dame, and in Cleveland against North Carolina. The Big Ten has yet to release a conference schedule, which will almost certainly add 20 games to Ohio State’s season.

According to the NCAA Division I Council’s ruling on winter sports, men’s basketball teams “can schedule 24 regular-season games and participate in one multiple-team event that includes up to three games; 25 regular-season games and participate in one multiple-team event that includes up to two games; or 25 regular-season games if a team does not participate in a multiple-team event.”

That means that currently, Holtmann could realistically join another multiple-team event. If he chooses not to or cannot find an event to join, Ohio State can only add one more independent, non-conference game.

The head coach was clear that he is actively looking and talking to coaches about creating an early-season event, and even mentioned hosting one at Ohio State. The biggest constraint is time-- there just isn’t much left.

“You know, the toughest thing about scheduling is that both teams have to agree to it and be engaged and have a date at this point, and want to play the game,” Holtmann said. “I think we’ve had some great ideas about some potential matchups, but we just haven’t been able to have a unified agreement on the game yet. We’ll see.”

While the non-conference remains up in the air, Holtmann was not worried about a potential lack of games hurting his team’s NCAA Tournament chances in the long run. He mentioned that 12 of the 14 Big Ten teams ended up in the top-50 of last season’s NET (the main metric used to determine the tournament field), and said every game against a Big Ten opponent provides a chance at a quality win.

“The one thing about our league as you look at the schedule in its entirety is it’ll again be the best and deepest basketball league in the country,” Holtmann said. “I think the opportunity for teams in our league is a little bit different because [top-tier games] are so frequent.”

The ups and downs of this college basketball season were to be predicted, as with everything else in life currently. In the long run, a few games here and there for Ohio State in the non-conference will not define its season. Still, Holtmann is working hard to end this difficult process.

“We’re hoping to put the finishing touches on that,” Holtmann said of his non-conference search. “I’m hoping in the next-- I know my wife would like that as well-- in the next week or two, hopefully."

In the middle of Holtmann’s press conference, news of the cancellation of Ohio State’s upcoming football game against Maryland came out. Everything is up in the air in this time of pandemic.

Amidst the chaotic world that we all live in, Holtmann knows there will be some unexpected occurrences. There will probably be cancelled games, maybe some quarantined players, and a lot of overall change.

He’s ready to adjust to whatever comes his way-- schedule included.

“I’m putting a 27-game schedule together,” Holtmann said. “I don’t think we’re gonna play 27 games, but I’m putting one together.”