Ohio State fires Chris Holtmann and Maryland wins a bubble battle

Wisconsin finally broke its four-game losing streak in very Wisconsin-like fashion on Tuesday night. It used solid defense and three-point shooting by Max Klesmit to close the first half on a 16-3 run that turned an 18-18 tie into a 34-21 advantage. Ohio State got within five points in the second half, but Chucky Hepburn answered with a three-point shot followed by a steal and a breakaway layup while the Buckeyes failed to score for seven straight minutes. When Bruce Thornton finally got his team back on the scoreboard with 1:36 to play, Hepburn responded with another triple to put the game away. Perhaps the most thrilling part of the game was Jamison Battle not scoring all game until he hit a three with 16 seconds left to cover the 9.5-point spread for Ohio State. Klesmit had a chance to expand the lead back to 10 points, but he missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Badgers settled for a 62-54 victory.

It wasn’t the most impressive win for Wisconsin since it came at home against Ohio State, but Greg Gard’s team will take what it can get after dropping games to Rutgers and Michigan on the road. The real excitement came on Wednesday when reports came out about Ohio State firing Chris Holtmann after six and a half seasons with the program. Holtmann made the NCAA Tournament four times (would have been five if not for the pandemic) in a row since taking over for Thad Matta in 2017. However, he never made the Sweet 16 and his highest seeded NCAA Tournament team was upset by Oral Roberts in the first round in 2021. 2023 was a disaster for Holtmann, as his team lost 14 of 15 games in the middle of conference play and finished 16-19 overall. It looked like everything would change this season, as Ohio State beat Alabama in November and improved to 12-2 when it defeated Rutgers on January 3. The Buckeyes have won just two games since, though, and athletic director Gene Smith has had enough of the losing.

I don’t blame Ohio State for expecting to make the NCAA Tournament every year. but I’m surprised Holtmann got fired when he has such a young and intriguing group of sophomores at the core of his team. Keeping a group of starters together for more than one season in today’s college basketball environment is rare, but I think Holtmann had something with Bruce Thornton, Roddy Gayle Jr., Felix Okpara, and Evan Mahaffey. They have not been winning much lately, but they are also playing in a league that’s full of fourth- and fifth-year players in the starting lineup. With the way they are all improving together as first-year starters, I wouldn’t be surprised if the group returned next season as juniors and finished in the top third of the Big Ten. With Holtmann gone, it’s more likely that the program will be reset under a new head coach who wants to bring in his own players.

In the other Big Ten game on Tuesday, Illinois destroyed Michigan 97-68 to bounce back from the loss it suffered at Michigan State on Saturday. It was a complete offensive performance by the Illini, and they shot 56 percent from the field as well as 48 percent from beyond the arc. Terrence Shannon Jr. played his best game since returning from suspension with 31 points on 11-for-15 shooting. Shannon is going to be impossible to stop when he’s knocking down three-point shots like he was against Michigan. There’s no way to close out on him without giving him a chance to explode to the rim.

With Holtmann out at Ohio State, there will now be more attention paid to Juwan Howard’s seat and how warm it’s getting in Ann Arbor. Howard got off to a hot start in his tenure with a run to the Elite Eight in 2021 with a team led by Hunter Dickinson and Franz Wagner, but the next season he barely made the NCAA Tournament as an 11 seed before saving face with a surprise Sweet 16 appearance. However, Howard is now about to go two straight seasons without a tourney appearance that became routine under John Beilein. No one is going to say anything right away because Howard is a Michigan legend from the Fab Five and he just had open heart surgery in September, but this season has been an embarrassment for Wolverine fans, and Beilein is just sitting there on Big Ten Network… awkward.

Kevin Willard was another coach that I thought was in trouble this season. He’s only in his second season at Maryland, but expectations were high and his team has been pitiful on offense for most of the season. Still, the Terps could easily be trending towards the NCAA Tournament right now if they had just defeated Rutgers at home and Ohio State on the road. They blew both of those winnable games, but got back on track with a 78-66 comeback win over Iowa on Wednesday. I was all set to finally write Maryland off for good when it fell behind by 10 points with 12 minutes left on a dunk by Owen Freeman, but Willard rallied the troops and they went on a 21-6 run over the next seven minutes. Jahmir Young and Julian Reese did most of the damage, and when the dust had cleared, Maryland was rolling away with a win that it desperately needed. The Terps shot 57 percent while outscoring Iowa 47-29 in the second half.

Willard has had major issues finding offensive production from the two spots in his lineup not filled by Young, Reese, and Donta Scott, but it looks like Deshawn Harris-Smith might finally be breaking out. He played a major role in the win over Iowa with 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting in 32 minutes off the bench. That would be a huge lift to Maryland’s offense if it could get that output more often from the freshman.

From the Iowa perspective, this was a game that could have gone a long way towards its own tourney hopes. The Hawkeyes did not shoot well after the break, and Tony Perkins had a poor night against Maryland’s tough defense. You can usually count on the senior point guard for 15 to 20 points, but he scored just nine in College Park on 3-for-13 shooting. Also, Ben Krikke can apparently only score against my Nittany Lions. In the two games since he exploded for 22 points in Happy Valley, Krikke has combined for just 17 points. He looked like Iowa’s best player back in November, but he’s been very quiet in some of these Big Ten games. With the next three games against Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Illinois, Iowa’s NCAA Tournament hopes are looking bleak.

Also on Wednesday night, Penn State lost at home to Michigan State 80-72. The game wasn’t really that close, as the Spartans led by double digits for almost all of the second half. They first started to pull away in the first half when Penn State turnovers led to some easy transition buckets for Michigan State. With four wins in its last five games, Tom Izzo’s team is rounding into form, and this win was especially encouraging because Tyson Walker and A.J. Hoggard combined for just 10 points. Michigan State still shot 51 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range thanks to Malik Hall posting his best game of the season and Jaden Akins pouring on 20 points. Hall is such an important player for the Spartans because he’s their only consistent post threat on a team that plays three guards for most of the time. Hall’s talents were on full display against my Nittany Lions as he showed off his scoring in the post and his ability to stretch out the defense and shoot from mid-range and beyond. A brand like Michigan State doesn’t sneak up on anyone, but this team seems to be peaking at the right time and it could end up with a deceptively low seed in March.

For Penn State, it sucks to lose that badly when you have good shooting nights like we got from Zach Hicks (5-for-6 from deep) and Nick Kern (2-for-2 from deep, 6-for-7 overall), but getting stops was a major issue and 15 turnovers was too much when Michigan State was looking to run off of every change in possession. Ace Baldwin Jr. and D’Marco Dunn both played poorly, and that won’t lead to wins while Kanye Clary is still on the mend. Clary at least looked a little healthier against Sparty with eight points and five assists in 23 minutes. Maybe this weekend he can return to the starting lineup.

This weekend promises to be another exciting one in the Big Ten with all 14 teams in action, but Thursday wasn’t so bad either. The night started with Northwestern visiting Rutgers and we got to see just how far Boo Buie can carry a team. Not only did we learn before the game that Ty Berry would miss the rest of the season with a torn meniscus, but Ryan Langborg was ejected on a Flagrant 2 foul in the first half when he elbowed Jamichael Davis in the ball sack. Chris Collins already ran a pretty shallow rotation, so now he had to dust off freshman guard Jordan Clayton and Justin Mullins, a sophomore wing who transferred from Denver.

Northwestern fans have apparently been clamoring for Collins to play Mullins more all season. He showed off some skill and athleticism with eight points and four blocked shots while Boo Buie proved that it really is possible to shoot well inside Jersey Mike’s Arena. He led the Wildcats to a 34-27 halftime lead and finished with 27 points on 6-for-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, Buie only had one assist because no one else on his team could hit a shot. With Berry and Langborg out, Northwestern needed Brooks Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli to step up, but they combined to shoot 6-for-24 and score 17 points.

Despite the offensive struggles, Northwestern held off Rutgers for much of the second half. It looked like the Scarlet Knights were taking control when Clifford Omoruyi took a Derek Simpson pass and slammed the ball home while being fouled by Martinelli. The subsequent free throw tied the score at 44-44, but Northwestern countered with seven straight points. However, the Wildcats ended up being stuck on 51 points for more than six minutes while Rutgers rallied past them and took the lead on Simpson’s pull-up jumper with five minutes to play. The Knights would lead by as many as five, but Northwestern fought back and tied the game when Barnhizer knocked down a wide open three thanks to a defensive collapse by Rutgers. The Wildcats could not build on it, though. Aundre Hyatt answered with a triple of his own to send the fans home happy with a 63-60 Rutgers victory.

The Knights have now won four straight games since Jeremiah Williams made his season debut on February 3. Williams does a little bit of everything and his steady hand at point guard allows Simpson to work off the ball more. Against Northwestern, Williams led the Knights with 15 points and five assists while adding five rebounds and three blocks.

Our last Big Ten game before the weekend featured Minnesota and Purdue. I thought I would be able to turn it off early based on how dominant the Boilers have been at Mackey Arena, but the Gophers nearly pulled off the biggest upset of the conference slate. This game was wild with both teams leading by 10 points at different times. Purdue jumped out to a 16-5 lead in the first five minutes on a Lance Jones three-point shot, but Minnesota got hot from beyond the arc and stormed back to take an eight-point lead at halftime. The Boilers fell behind by 10 on the first possession of the second half thanks to Pharrel Payne’s layup, but they would never trail by more than that. Minnesota’s three-point shooting cooled off and Mason Gillis came up big off the bench for Purdue with four three-point field goals and three assists throughout the game.

Dawson Garcia got hurt in the brutal collapse against Iowa, but he looked perfectly healthy in this one and scored 24 points while refusing to let the Gophers fade away. They closed within two points with four minutes to play, but Edey and Gillis countered with clutch buckets to finally close the door on Minnesota and keep Purdue undefeated at home this season.

Weekend of hoops

Has Wisconsin truly righted the ship after defeating the lowly Buckeyes? We’ll find out when the Badgers visit Iowa on Saturday to face a Hawkeyes team that cannot afford to lose. Like Iowa, Maryland is another squad that has a chance to defeat a ranked opponent at home and boost its NCAA Tournament chances. The Terps get a stiff test with Illinois in town.

On Sunday, Minnesota looks to bounce back from two tough road losses with a home game against Rutgers, but can the Scarlet Knights be cooled off? We’ll also get to see if Indiana can stick in the NCAA Tournament conversation. The Hoosiers can give their resume a boost by beating Northwestern, and the Wildcats have proven to be vulnerable on the road even with Ty Berry in the lineup.

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