Ohio State’s Chris Holtmann Reflects On Previous Meetings With Villanova, Jay Wright

Holtmann is 3-4 against Wright, including an upset of the top-ranked Wildcats during his final season at Butler.

The last time Ohio State and Villanova met on the hardwood was Nov. 13, 2019, as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games, an annual series between the Big Ten and the Big East. 

The Wildcats came to Columbus as the No. 10 team in the country and were handed their first loss of the season, as the 16th-ranked Buckeyes raced out to an early lead in a 25-point victory.

A lot has changed in the 28 months since, as Ohio State has just two players on its roster who appeared in that game in junior forward E.J. Liddell (eight points and one rebound) and fifth-year senior forward Kyle Young (eight points and seven rebounds).

Villanova, meanwhile, has six players on its roster who played in that game, including fifth-year seniors Jermaine Samuels (14 points and five rebounds) and Collin Gillespie (10 points and five assists), giving the Wildcats an advantage when it comes to team chemistry and overall experience.

“They’re so different,” Buckeyes head coach Chris Holtmann said during his media availability on Saturday afternoon. “They’re older, for one. They were young. That group was pretty young, and it was early in the season. They’re so different than that team ... It wasn’t their night. It was kind of our night. We played well, but it was early in the season, too.”

While this will be just the fifth all-time matchup between the two programs – with Ohio State holding a 3-1 edge in the series – Holtmann is extremely familiar with Villanova from his three seasons as the head coach at Butler.

While he was just 2-4 in such games, it includes upsets of No. 1 and No. 2 Villanova during the 2016-17 season. Thus, it's those matchups the Buckeyes will reference leading up to tomorrow’s game.

“I think the time we played them the last few years at Butler, those are probably more of the games – though the personnel is different – that we reflect on and have watched a little bit more,” Holtmann said. “They have tremendous buy-in to how they want to play. They’ve got a real toughness to them, always.

“They just have a real tremendous toughness and an approach that is really tough-minded. They’re physically tough and really tough-minded. It requires great discipline to play a team that is this talented, this well coached and as tough as they are.”

The Wildcats have found a high level of success under head coach Jay Wright, winning two of the last five national championships. That’s why Holtmann has tried to implement many of Wright's ideas and shape the Buckeyes’ identity in Villanova’s image.

“We haven’t been in touch so much since I left the league, but just tremendous respect (for him),” Holtmann said of Wright. “I’ve stolen so much from him and his program. He has no idea because I didn’t tell him. I just watched his teams and anything that he was doing in terms of teaching, I would take. I, even to this day, have stolen a lot from him. So thanks, Jay.”

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