Chris Holtmann says Ohio State seniors had a 'really good approach' against Maryland

Ohio State men’s basketball has found a bit of late season form after an abysmal stretch through the second half of the season, ripping off back-to-back wins at home. The second, a win against Maryland on senior day, head coach Chris Holtmann saw coming ahead of time.

The seniors just came in with a good look about them ahead of their final home game, Holtmann said. And with guys like Justice Sueing, Sean McNeil, Isaac Likekele and Tanner Holden bringing a bevy of experience to their final games as Buckeyes, the win was a natural result.

“I thought they had a look in their eye tonight. It felt like, obviously we’ve lost on senior day before. We lost last year on senior day. Emotions can get the best of you. But senior day is so unique right now, especially with the Covid year. It’s like, who is a senior, who’s not a senior, what’s it look like, how do you do senior day given all that? But we have a guy like Justice who’s been here for several years. And we wanted him to really go out on a great note — as well as those other guys — but obviously a guy that’s been here this long, he wanted to go out on a win and he did a great job,” Holtmann said.

As for the Buckeyes, in general, Holtmann thinks his team has perked up. After losing 14 of 16 games since the new year began, Ohio State is 2-0 in its last two contest.

It’s going to be too little, too late barring an automatic NCAA Tournament berth from winning the conference tournament, but that doesn’t mean Holtmann isn’t pleased with the late progress.

“I just thought they had a really good approach. And obviously for that last maybe, whatever, week and a half, two weeks, I do feel like we’ve played better, so maybe across the board our confidence is higher as a group,” Holtmann said.