Staff Continuity Key For Ohio State in Transitional Summer

By Tim Shoemaker on June 21, 2017 at 10:10 am
Ohio State assistant coach Mike Schrage.
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Everything about the staff meetings is the same.

Well, everything except the location, of course.

And that’s something very important to Chris Holtmann and his coaching staff as it transitions from Butler to Ohio State: Continuity is key.

“It’s awesome,” said Ryan Pedon, one of the Buckeyes’ new assistants. “Very few times in our profession to do you get an opportunity to transition with a boss that you know and that you love, you work for and understand how he wants things to be done. Then, to have an opportunity to do it as a complete staff. Mike, Terry and I work really, really well together and that’s something we all take a lot of pride in.”

Pedon, Terry Johnson and Mike Schrage all opted to come to Ohio State with Holtmann after he decided to take the Buckeyes’ head coaching job. All four worked together last season at Butler.

It’s not unprecedented for an entire staff to follow a head coach to a new job. It’s not exactly common, either. One or two assistants? Sure. But all three? That’s a bit rarer.

Schrage said he felt confident that would be exactly what happened, though, once it was known neither Pedon nor Johnson would be Holtmann’s replacement at Butler. That job, of course, went to LaVall Jordan.

“Once it got to a certain point, he communicated well with us. I was confident he would. He’s just that kind of man,” Schrage said. “I think in college basketball today, when a coach jumps positions or perceived levels, does the staff stay? He knows our staff, we work great together and he knows it can work anywhere and we believe so.”

It was a little harder for Johnson to make the transition. After all, he spent 10 years at Butler. His wife is a Butler graduate. Johnson played basketball at Hinkle Fieldhouse on the morning of his wedding. His twin boys took their first steps there.

That’s a lot to leave behind.

“Really, the opportunity just presented itself to me,” Johnson said. “I really never know what’s in store for me and some feeling inside of me said it was time. Wherever it came from. I believe in my faith and I just kind of followed it.”

The pay bump probably made the move a little easier for Holtmann and his assistants. Butler is a private school so it doesn’t reveal contract figures, but it’s estimated Holtmann more than doubled his salary with the move to Ohio State. Pedon, Johnson and Schrage will make north of $1 million combined next season. That, too, is likely a serious raise.

This will be a new challenge for the four of them, though. The Buckeyes haven’t made the NCAA tournament the last two seasons and are coming off the worst season of Thad Matta’s head coaching career. There’s a lot of work to be done.

The hope, of course, is the staff’s familiarity with one another will help ease the transition.

“We knew each other before, we care about each other, we care about each other’s families. That’s what kind of makes our work relationship — it’s not really work,” Johnson said. “We’re building something special and it’s fun to be around each other. No one takes anything personal and we all have the same agenda: How can we get the Ohio State Buckeyes back on top?”

Continuity will certainly be key in that quest.

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