![]() “Evan Mahaffey, a young man from (Cincinnati) Moeller, is just kind of growing his game. He gives us some needed stuff in our backcourt. He’s got great quickness and great burst with the ball. “Dale Bonner is an Ohio kid we are really excited about. He was preseason All-Big Ten and had they had a better year he might have been (in the postseason). He’s been able to score the ball at the Big Ten level at a really high level. * On the three transfers – “Jamison Battle is 6-7 and kind of a versatile wing and forward. “All those guys have a real chance to grow into really good players in a Buckeye uniform.” Devin’s physicality and his ability to rebound the ball at a high level when his motor is really running is exciting for us. “I think Scotty is a real two-way player and has a chance to be an impact player as a freshman. But he has a great feel and is highly skilled. He’s going to need some time to add weight and strength. He has to get stronger and get a more physically ready college body to be able to have the impact. He is 6-4 with good size and good length. They all have developing in front of them, but they all have a real opportunity to grow into really good players here. Taison Chatman is a point guard from Minnesota and Austin Parks is a big 6-10, 6-11 kid from Ohio. Scotty Middleton is another guy, a 6-6 or 6-7 guy with good length and size. We start with a local young man in Devin Royal who is a physical, strong good athlete who’s got a game that is growing and learning. “The freshmen are a class we are really excited about. We do have those three guys who started for us as we won five out of seven games late in the year. But we are super happy for him and being picked by Utah and the opportunity he has (in the NBA) to grow his game. ![]() We anticipated having Brice longer than one year. * On the incoming freshmen – “We had Bruce, Roddy and Felix from that previous recruiting class. It wasn’t going to come without some challenges and certainly there were some of those.” We wanted to back it up with another good recruiting class, as we did. We decided to go young with our roster and hope that those guys get older and learn from it. “We had been to the tournament every year and in the top 25 every year … We were trying to figure out how we could take the next step. We did not anticipate the struggles to the degree that we lost during that stretch. We anticipated there would be some struggles. We knew there were going to be some struggles just because of how young we would be. * On the lessons learned from last season’s struggles – “There was a ton of stuff. Here were some of the excerpts and highlights from Holtmann’s interview session on the Coach Howard Show: He welcomed in four incoming freshmen in guard Taison Chatman, forwards Devin Royal and Scotty Middleton and center Austin Parks as well as three incoming transfers in guard Dale Bonner (from Baylor), guard Evan Mahaffey (from Penn State) and forward Jamison Battle (from Minnesota). Holtmann will also build around more returnees with guard Roddy Gayle, center Felix Okpara, guard Bowen Hardman and forward Kalen Etzler. Point guard Bruce Thornton and center Zed Key, recovering from shoulder surgery, will be the team’s lone returning starters. OSU lost top scorer Brice Sensabaugh to the NBA after just one season. It was OSU’s first losing season in 19 years and snapped a string of four straight NCAA berths. They then rallied and won five of their last seven games to end the season – including three wins in three days at the Big Ten tournament – to finish the year at 16-19 overall. The team lost 14 out of 15 games – including nine straight – during one stretch in the Big Ten season. Holtmann and the Buckeyes are coming off one of the toughest seasons for OSU basketball in recent memory. The show is hosted by longtime central Ohio travel basketball director George Howard, who has coached and helped dozens of high school players from the region earn scholarship opportunities at Ohio State and many other schools.Ĭheck out the show – which also includes an interview session with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo – in the video board above. Ohio State men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann was a guest on Monday night on the Coach Howard Show.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |