Ohio State Looking to Move Forward, Achieve More After Michigan State Win

By Dan Hope on January 8, 2018 at 8:35 am
Chris Holtmann
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Ohio State men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann knows that his team’s 80-64 win over Michigan State on Sunday, the Buckeyes’ first win over a No. 1-ranked team since 2007 and the first signature win of his first season coaching the Buckeyes, is a game that will not soon be forgotten.

"This is a moment that our fans and our players will remember for a long time," Holtmann said after Sunday’s game. "I think they will. And they’ll take parts and pieces of it. So it feels really good."

From his perspective as a coach, however, Holtmann doesn’t want to spend too much time remembering what happened Sunday, because the Buckeyes have to prepare for another Big Ten game against Maryland on Thursday.

"I hate to say it, it’s going to sound Belichickian, but we really are going to try to move as quickly as possible onto the next thing," Holtmann said, referencing New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, perhaps with Belichick’s famous "On to Cincinnati" press conference in mind.

That’s not to say Holtmann didn’t take time to appreciate Sunday’s win. He particularly appreciated seeing players like Jae’Sean Tate, Keita Bates-Diop and Kam Williams, whose Buckeyes teams haven’t had many big wins since they arrived on campus in 2014, enjoy and embrace the moment, describing that as "rewarding" and "genuinely a big reason why we get into coaching." He told his team to take Sunday night to enjoy and celebrate the win.

Come Monday, though, Holtmann expected his team to be ready to get back to work and prepare for the Terrapins. He expects them to do so – and Tate and Bates-Diop said after the game that they plan to do so – because they have their sights set on accomplishing more than just one big win.

"I’m really curious to see how we respond in these next couple games, to be honest with you," Holtmann said. "We certainly don’t want this moment to define us, and we don’t want it to be the pinnacle of our season, as good as it is. And that’s the challenge for us moving forward. I watch on video, and I am so impressed with a lot of the teams that we’re going to compete against here (in upcoming Big Ten games). And we’re going to have to play really well."

Is the Ohio State men’s basketball program "back?" Bates-Diop and Tate appeared tempted to say yes when they were asked that question after Sunday’s game. Instead, however, they said they don’t want to get ahead of themselves quite yet, because they know the Buckeyes’ season still has a long way to go.

"It’s a lot of games to go, man, and we want to keep striding," Tate said. "We want to continue to go out there and continue to prove ourselves, and we’ll just have to see at the end, what at the end of the tunnel there is. But we’re just going to keep on trying to get as many wins as possible, and at the end, you guys will – we’ll let you make that judgment."

Bates-Diop is excited about the direction the Buckeyes are trending, but he doesn’t want them to stop their upward trajectory now.

"This is the start of what we need. This is the place that we wanted to get to by the end of the season, and this is just the start of it," Bates-Diop said. "If we keep doing what we’re doing, I think we’re on the right track. I’m not going to say we’re there yet. We have 14 Big Ten games left. But if we keep going like this, I think we’ll be pretty good."

“We certainly don’t want this moment to define us, and we don’t want it to be the pinnacle of our season, as good as it is. And that’s the challenge for us moving forward.”– Chris Holtmann

Coming off of Sunday’s win, which improved the Buckeyes’ record to 13-4 overall and 4-0 in conference play, Ohio State appears to be well-positioned to contend for an NCAA Tournament bid and potentially even for a conference title. Holtmann knows, however, that that could quickly slip away, so he isn’t ready to make any proclamations about his team yet.

"I don’t think anybody’s ready to crown or give us anything," Holtmann said. "I just think we’ve got a lot we’ve got to continue to prove. I don’t think that, certainly right now, we can’t rest on our laurels, that’s for sure. Because we won’t be playing in any postseason if we do. If we get complacent and we relax, we won’t. So I think we’ve got to continue to go out and earn.

"At the end of the day … you’re gonna get what you earn, in most cases. You’re gonna get what you earn. If we’re good enough and we grow and we get good enough, we’ll get what we earn. Who knows. It’s so early to tell at this point. But the reality is, every kid would love to play in that thing, because it’s the best athletic event in the world."

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