Another defector from OSU basketball

Submitted by GhostofJermain… on April 5th, 2020 at 8:40 PM

Luther Muhammed has announced he's entering the portal.  Things are getting weird in Columbus, and one might start to wonder if Holtman is on the hot seat..?  I believe he only makes $3m a year, and his dream job is not opening up anytime soon (KY).  At first it just seemed like he was stacking the program full of "his guys", but now even they are leaving. 

Matta's entire freshman class (5) his last season in Columbus all transferred, which is why Dakich got minutes.  2 of Holtman's freshman from the 18 class left.  2 of the 3 ( All top 50 recruits) in 19 have now left.  Which makes you wonder if there is not more to the DJ Carton story...

For what it's worth the OSU boards are saying it's because he's west coast home sick, and the kid in front of him jallow is the starter.

Even with Seth Towns, they are 3-4 guys below the max with Wesson expected to be going regardless of his grade from NBA.

Cheers

Bambi

April 5th, 2020 at 9:19 PM ^

Muhammad's from NJ so it'd be east coast sick, not west coast.

Also I doubt Jallow had any impact on the transfer, despite what OSU fans may be saying. Muhammad has started 56/64 games since coming to Columbus. Jallow  has 23 including 13 in 2018-2019 as a sophomore while Muhammad started 28 that same year as a freshman. Muhammad was the teams best perimeter defender and scored 7 PPG + both years while Jallow has yet to crack 3 PPG. Muhammad is also a 2 while Jallow is a 3 who will now have to play the 2 more. So the idea that Jallow was going to overtake Muhammad after missing a year due to injury is just wrong. Expect OSU to go after a transfer guard since they have 2 guards on their roster right now.

This off-season has been rough to OSU. In early January in a loss @ Maryland, OSU started both Wessons, Muhammad and Carton. All 4 are now gone, and only one of those 4 (Andre Wesson) was out of eligibility. Plus they lost a top 50 recruit freshman in Gaffney.

Frank Chuck

April 5th, 2020 at 10:09 PM ^

Reading this warms my heart.

As long as Ohio State doesn't get any more quality grad transfers, Holtmann is probably looking at a shit sandwich of a season in 2021 (assuming it even happens).

And I'm not convinced Seth Towns is a big get. His value has increased substantially in light of the many departures but he didn't exactly light it up in the Ivy Leagues as an efficient scorer. 16 ppg on 41% shooting is...uh...not good. The competition will be much tougher in a high major conference. I realize he shot well from 3 (44%) but we'll see if he can maintain that percentage. 

njvictor

April 5th, 2020 at 10:29 PM ^

I'm not convinced Sueing or Towns are legit either and OSU is banking on both being major contributors. Sueing averaged 14 per game on an ATROCIOUS Cal team that won 16 TOTAL games and 5 TOTAL conference games in Sueing's two years there. Seth Towns was a pretty good shooter, but besides that was pretty underwhelming and that was before he missed two years with knee injuries. I have doubts about either or both of them keeping those numbers up against B1G competition

Bambi

April 6th, 2020 at 1:05 AM ^

Ahrens is a F. He's 6'5 so functionally can play the 2 or 3, but his recruiting profile listed him as a SF and OSU lists him as a F. Also in terms of play style he's a shooter who doesn't really handle the ball. He'll play the 2 for OSU next year out of necessity but he's not a guard. 

njvictor

April 5th, 2020 at 10:35 PM ^

The OSU fans on r/CollegeBasketball are poo-pooing Gaffney's departure. He was a top 50 guy and borderline 5 star at one point, having him leave is a pretty big loss despite him not doing much his freshman year. And if they couldn't develop him or he wasn't a culture fit, then that's a big recruiting miss for them

BlockM

April 6th, 2020 at 7:45 AM ^

Can we not second guess kids who speak up about mental health issues, please? Question the logic in your own mind if you must, but maybe he just needed a change of scenery. Maybe he knew something wasn't right and was grasping at straws trying to explain it away. No need to call him out on anything.

njvictor

April 5th, 2020 at 10:20 PM ^

They're bringing in 2 transfers, one from Cal and one from Harvard, and basically betting everything on them being really good. Let's hope they pull a UNC and all their valued transfers are flops

BeatIt

April 8th, 2020 at 8:37 AM ^

njvictor , towns plays right away.the other transfer, a PG from Bucknell has to sit a team.after 2 incoming freshman OSU would have 1 scholarship open. Again Holtman will coach this bunch into the tourney and 8th or best in the BIG.Hes nowhere near even a warm seat.the NeverHoltmans in our fanbase are just butthurt matta supporters. Their idiots.in his last year Matta not only lost a entire top 50 recruiting class but also lost @ home to a winless rutgers team.That wasn't enough for the Matta's I guess. Worst in-game coach ever @ OSU. He had 3 teams that should have won it all. I'll give him a pass on the Oden led team that lost to the defending champs of a senior laden UF team.I give him a pass on that loss, that UF team was one of the best ever in college basketball imo. Those 2 teams had the best top 5 players in the country between them. 

     But hasn't UM had a couple transfers this year? Luther Muhammad thinks he's more than he is.He transferred because Muhammad thought the offense should run through him like it did for Kaleb Wesson. They'll probably feature Duane Washington and EJ Liddel as the offensive swing player. The transfer portal definitely creates chaos. 

As far as DJ Carton is concerned he played very well and easily had the most upside on the roster.something was going on in the locker room about the time DJ Carton started having problems.than washington and Muhammad both served 1 game suspensions coincidentally the same time washington injured his ribs,lol? My thoughts, 1 of them was sticking up for Carton and a fight broke out. Carton was passing up both sophmores as the star of the team. Neither handled it well. I thought Holtman did a unbelievable job after losing their best player Carton and the team rallied to finish tied for 5th in the BIG. 

bronxblue

April 5th, 2020 at 10:29 PM ^

It really does like like Holtman is going to be gone in a year.  He's not been a particularly great X's and O's guy these past couple of years, his teams have generally struggled as the year progressed, and now he's not keeping guys on campus.  

bluesalt

April 5th, 2020 at 11:32 PM ^

I bet there will be a lot of extra transfers this year due to COVID-19.  With schools getting shut down and an uncertainty as to when/if play will resume, players could sit out the transfer year when nobody plays anyway.  On top of that there will probably be a desire amongst some kids to return closer to their families during this time of crisis.

While yes, it looks odd that OSU has had so many transfers, it’s possible this won’t look as odd in a few months.

BJNavarre

April 6th, 2020 at 7:39 AM ^

Not sure I'd read a ton into it. Beilein had a lot of attrition too with his early classes. Tony Bennett at Virginia as well. Holtmann seems to always have a decent team, regardless of talent or depth, so I doubt he's going anywhere soon.

CWoodIsMyBoiii

April 6th, 2020 at 10:29 AM ^

Where are you getting "Over 50%" of Beilein's 2009-2011 classes non-grad transferred? 

2009 - Darrius Morris (NBA early entry), Matt Vogrich (played out scholarship at UofM) Blake Mclimans (grad-transfer to Miami-OH), and Jordan Morgan (played out scholarship at UofM).

2010 - Evan Smotrytz (TRANSFER), Tim Hardaway (NBA early entry), and Jon Horford (grad-transfer to Florida)

2011 - Carlton Brundidge (TRANSFER), Trey Burke (NBA early entry), Max Bielfeldt (grad-transfer to Indiana), 

So that's two signees out of 10 over Beilein's first three years that transferred out of Michigan before graduating. 

BJNavarre

April 6th, 2020 at 12:27 PM ^

LOL, and we both missed Colton Christian, who I believe was a scholarship athlete, but transferred after his sophomore year. He was so unmemorable that he's fallen out of (or never made it in) the 247 db.

Another one, sort of, Laval Lucas Perry transferred in to the program from Arizona, then was kicked off the team by Beilein after 2 years and transferred to Oakland.

Definitely a lot of attrition in those early Beilein years.

 

IndyBlue90

April 6th, 2020 at 8:57 AM ^

I actually think they will be fine. I'm a Butler grad and followed closely during Holtmann's time. His number one skill was being able to McGyver the roster into a bubble team or better every year. A perfect example is his final year at BU. They lost two historically good players (Roosevelt Jones and Kellen Dunham) and two major contributors. The team actually got better and ended up as a 4 seed and had their highest ever finish in the Big East.  

He's also the type of coach that maximizes a teams best attributes and minimizes its worst ones. This is good in that his teams usually perform well, but it does take away from game to game preparation. At Butler, the teams would always find their level and then never punch too high above or below it. 

Frank Chuck

April 6th, 2020 at 11:47 AM ^

I agree with your characterization of Holtmann - competent and, therefore, fields a perennial NCAAT team despite what he does or doesn't have.

So if the version of Ohio State we're seeing (20-21 wins) will be the norm from Ohio State, then I'm alright with Hotlmann as OSU basketball coach long term.

I actually expected OSU to do much better under Holtmann by now. And by much better, I mean 27+ win seasons. He's underperformed relative to my expectations in year 2 and 3. (He did surprise me in year 1with a 25 win season.)

And sure OSU swept us this season. (The refs were maddeningly inconsistent in game 1 and it screwed with both teams but us moreso because we were more finesse. In game 2 we just got beat in the final stretch.) But if Coach Howard maintains his recruiting a top the Big Ten, he will blow past everyone in the Big Ten over time (just like Ohio State football has done).