Last week, the Ohio State Buckeyes decided to fire head coach Chris Holtmann after several disappointing seasons. The Buckeyes missed the NCAA Tournament last year and were well on pace to do it again this year, prompting athletic director Gene Smith to make the decision in the middle of the season. But legendary Duke Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski does not agree with the decision.
During the latest episode of his Basketball and Beyond radio show through Sirius XM, Mike Krzyzewski called out Ohio State for firing Chris Holtmann before he was allowed to “build a culture.”
“After three years at Duke, I’d be fired,” Krzyzewski said on his radio show according to Colin Gay of The Columbus Dispatch. “Part of building a culture is going through adversity. We were fortunate to be allowed to do that. Our schools were fortunate because we were allowed to build a culture. Our culture is still there at Duke. That’s what you want to keep going.”
It’s worth noting that Holtmann was fired after seven years at Ohio State during which the team never won a conference title or advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament and were now on pace to miss the tournament entirely for the second consecutive season.
