Morning Constitutional: How Does Chris Holtmann Keep the Buckeyes Upbeat?

Today’s Topic: How Does Chris Holtmann Keep the Buckeyes Upbeat?

The Buckeyes are riding a two-game losing streak without Kaleb Wesson available to play. During the most important part of the season for this team, their leading scorer is serving a suspension.

Less than two weeks ago, however, they had just defeated Iowa by 20 points, giving their resume the first big conference win this season. They had seemingly — and somewhat improbably — locked themselves into an NCAA Tournament berth.

And then came the suspension.

The Buckeyes were run off the court at Purdue and then answered that with an 18-point loss at Northwestern, snapping a 10-game losing streak for the Wildcats.

Now their tourney future is very cloudy and the skies don’t look like they’re going to get any clearer Sunday against the Badgers.

So what does head coach Chris Holtmann do to keep everyone from packing it in and giving up?

“I think you remain as optimistic and positive and forward thinking as possible,” he said on Friday. “Because I don’t know if there’s another option.”

Following the game at Northwestern, the team had to stay in Chicago due to an issue with their plane. Holtmann made use of the layover to talk things out.

“We went out as a staff after the game just to decompress and think about some things,” he said. “We kind of spent a few hours together trying to think through some things. And while we were sitting in that restaurant trying to think through some things, one of our guys brought perspective that’s needed in that moment. And that is this, despite all of those factors right now, we’re sitting at 18 wins with a chance, just a chance, to put ourselves in a better position. I think at the beginning of the season we would have said we embrace being in that position and we’re excited about that position.”

The position the Buckeyes find themselves is dire, and they’ll be going it without their leading scorer and rebounder, with a point guard who has a bad leg and a bad shoulder, a starting shooting guard who has missed 40 of his last 45 shots, and a veteran in Andre Wesson who has about run out of gas according to Holtmann.

He has seen this team be competitive against very good teams, but closing things out has been difficult. Holtmann wants his team to remember what they’ve done when they’ve been at their best.

“At full strength, I think we really have a chance to be competitive against a lot of people. I really do,” he said. “Now some of that is confidence and where your guys are at mentally. We’ve got to do a good job of keeping them in a good place and health and all of those other things. We haven’t been able to finish it necessarily against some of the elite teams like we did last year, but I think we’ve been competitive in some games.

“Now obviously we are not necessarily at a full deck right now, but I think there’s an optimism that’s required and a little bit of perspective because I think the alternative is not healthy and not going to benefit those guys at all, if myself or our staff has anything other than that attitude.”