Ohio State basketball: Chris Holtmann shows he can’t close games

The Ohio State basketball team has lost nine straight games. Let me say that again in case you didn’t quite comprehend that…the Ohio State basketball team has lost NINE STRAIGHT games. They’ve also lost 14 of their last 15. That’s the worse slide I’ve ever seen this team go through.

All season long the Buckeyes have struggled to close out close games. It’s happened on numerous occasions. Early games against Duke and North Carolina showed us that. But I can accept those losses early in the year because this is a team that starts a couple of freshmen and an almost entirely new roster. They needed time to gell.

There is absolutely no excuse for it now. In Ohio State’s slide of losing 14 of 15, they have seven losses by six points or less. That’s just two possessions. It happened again last night when the Buckeyes lost to Penn State 75-71 after having five shots in the last 35 seconds and not being able to hit one of them.

Close losses are on coaching this late in the year. Chris Holtmann has proven that he can’t close games. He doesn’t know how to get his team to respond when the going gets tough. The going has been tough for a while now and will only get worse as the year finishes.

Ohio State likely will go without a win the rest of the way. Their last win was against Iowa on January 21st. Holtmann has not only lost the support of the fans, but he has clearly lost the team as well. They just tune him out at this point. You can see it in their play.

The only thing I can tell you to make these last few games enjoyable to watch is to bet against the Buckeyes like I did last night. If they can’t win, at least you can make a little bit of cash!