Ohio State basketball: Will Gene Smith reverse course on Holtmann?

Gene Smith gave Chris Holtmann an extension last season after the Ohio State basketball team failed to make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the fifth-straight year. Since then, the extension has only looked more and more foolish.

Now, the Buckeyes are at their lowest point in 25 years. Not since the 1997-98 season, which was Jim O’Brien’s first year, have the Buckeyes had a worse record than they do right now. Ohio State just lost their seventh-straight game and will probably lose the rest of the games on their schedule too.

The Ohio State basketball team is at rock bottom. It cannot get any worse than it is right now. If Ohio State does in fact lose the rest of the games they have scheduled, they will finish the season at 11-21, with that including a loss in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.

Will an awful record like that get Gene Smith to reverse course on keeping Holtmann? Fans already want him gone. The only thing that seems to be keeping him in Columbus is Gene’s stubbornness and a costly buyout. That buyout seems to be the biggest obstacle.

I’m sure some boosters wouldn’t mind helping to pay that huge sum of money to get Holtmann out of here. Ohio State basketball fans just want this team back in the tournament at this point, let alone back to where Thad Matta had the program previous to Holtmann taking over.

Even as the Buckeyes have lost 12 of their last 13 games, I’m still not sure Smith will make a move. I think Holtmann stays at least one more year. I don’t know why Smith was okay with mediocrity last season, but now we’re not even at that point. This program is just flat-out bad.