Hear From Ohio State Men’s Basketball Head Coach Chris Holtmann

After a 2-0 start, the No. 16 Ohio State men’s basketball team welcomes No. 10 Villanova to Value City Arena on Nov. 14.

Head coach Chris Holtmann spoke to members of the media Nov. 12 ahead of the big-time matchup.

Senior forward Andre Wesson will be out again against Villanova.
Obviously, we have a tremendous opponent coming in —
a program I have a tremendous amount of respect for.
Villanova has a young team like we do.
We will need to be really good. Villanova is always one of the toughest and soundest teams fundamentally.
Villanova does not get shook by anything, ever.
Villanova always shrinks the ball in the post. At times, they’ll put five guys who are 6-8 and bigger, or one 6-4 guy with the other four being 6-8 or bigger.
Villanova is elite at keeping the ball out of the post, even if you think you have a mismatch. The ball has got to move.
We could use Andre’s toughness, defense and intelligence on the floor. We’ll be undersized at the wing.
Chemistry is something that develops throughout the year, especially when you go through tough things, so we’ll see how that develops.
I think we’ll be more equipped to handle a lot of pressure in the paint, but I don’t know if we’re there yet.
Kaleb is a luxury when playing free, because we can go to him anywhere on the floor and he demands attention.
I hope it’s not understated how big it is to have such a high-caliber nonconference opponent come in to play us.
I hope to learn how we handle adversity in the course of a game, and how we are physically and mentally, as well as how we respond to moments.
We thought it was going to be Villanova, Creighton or Providence, and I found out Providence was playing someone else, so I said I bet they put us with Villanova. I though it will be great for our fans.
I didn’t see Villanova head coach Jay Wright much because he was with U.S.A. Basketball, but I saw his assistants. Everywhere I looked while recruiting, there were two Villanova assistants right behind me.
Jay Wright is somebody I have sought advice from because of the advice I seek from him.
It may have hurt us not playing a top-tier team as early last season. I would have liked to play a better, harder nonconference team last year.
I’ll be interested to see what our fans think about the matchup with Villanova. The Big East is a really good conference.
I like the tournaments. It’s good here, because football controls things here in the fall, so it’s not bad to take your team away and play at neutral sites.
Villanova is the most physical team I’ve watched this year. They are so physical an they do it without fouling, or at least the perception they’re not fouling, which is an art.
We’ll see how Luther Muhammad and Duane Washington can translate a good defensive game against UMass Lowell against Villanova.
You’re always climbing. That’s your mindset as a coach: You’re always climbing on this journey.
Challenge because you and Jay have coached against each other so much? Villanova does what it does, but has different personnel. We’re unique, too, because we didn’t have someone like Kaleb Wesson.
Musa Jallow? His boot is off and he can shoot, but not much else yet. Still not timetable for return.

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