Growing up in the 1980s and then really paying attention in the 1990s, Ohio State’s main basketball rival from my vantage point was always the Indiana Hoosiers.
In high school, there was nothing better than watching Calbert Cheaney against Jimmy Jackson, and there was nothing bigger in college basketball. Even in the era of the Fab Five, the Indiana games still stood tall.
Today, however, that rivalry is more of a memory than a reality. That’s in part due to the struggles of both programs the last few years — replacing two fired coaches isn’t exactly the blueprint for high-stakes battles, as well as the emergence of more current OSU rivalries with Michigan State and Wisconsin.
Buckeye head coach Chris Holtmann is still learning about Ohio State’s history, but that doesn’t mean he is interested in living in the past. Coming into Tuesday night’s contest against the Hoosiers, there was no talk of preparing for a rivalry game this week with his players.
“I just prepared our team,” he said after OSU’s 71-56 win over Indiana. “I recognize that that’s, I don’t know, maybe people feel that way, but I think as a coach, being at Butler we certainly had some rivalries, and there is an added level of stuff and intensity to it, emotion. But we just tried to prepare our team the best way possible.”
Perhaps a rivalry with Indiana can be built up again, but Holtmann is more concerned about the Buckeyes right now than who they are playing. After all, this is a team that wasn’t expected to do anything, and yet is now in the middle of something quite special. So whatever Holtmann is doing at this point is working, and to change the focus or the approach now would not be an appropriate use of his time.
But could we see more of a focus on the Hoosiers as a rivalry in year two when Holtmann has more experience under his belt as the Ohio State head coach?
“I don’t know, I’m just saying I think those things maybe will be formed in the years to come,” he said. “Or maybe people have a feeling about this one. Obviously, we certainly have a feeling about the school up north here that a lot of people feel is a rivalry in every sport. I think those things will be formed. I’m just saying as a coach, we don’t put a whole lot into–we try to prepare our guys the same way for every game. Now they may feel differently, but we want to beat these guys as much as we wanted to beat Robert Morris.”
In other words, nothing has happened between the two teams under Holtmann to warrant a little added fire. At least not yet.
As the head coach at Butler, Holtmann was quite familiar with the state of Indiana basketball, so he knows what the Hoosiers are capable of as a program. He also believes first-year head coach Archie Miller will get Indiana back to what they once were.
But when asked if he wants the OSU-IU rivalry to get back to what it used to be, he answered as only a coach would.
“Do I want another team in our league to get really good?” he said with a smile. “Is that what you’re asking me?”
Holtmann may not be in favor of a return, but everybody else who has experienced the Ohio State – Indiana rivalry certainly should be.
Today, the rivalry is toned down — and maybe it doesn’t even exist anymore, but if IU hired the right head coach, it will be back.
And it might be back pretty quickly.
[Jae’Sean Tate photo courtesy OhioStateBuckeyes.com]