Butler Basketball: Five potential replacements for Chris Holtmann

On Friday, news broke that Butler basketball coach Chris Holtmann was headed to Ohio State. Who are the potential replacements for the job?

Butler has been a very storied program over the past several years — and not only because of their tournament success (two Final Fours).

The team has moved from being a mid-major darling to a contender in the Big East conference that finished second a season ago. This is, of course, thanks in large part to the outstanding players and coaches who have roamed the halls of Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Brad Stevens was the man who started the run of great play with back-to-back trips to the Final Four, and he was succeeded fairly quickly by an interim head coach (filling in for coach Brandon Miller, who took a leave of absence) in Chris Holtmann.

Holtmann quickly took charge of the program and delivered an impressive stretch of seasons in his time with Butler. He amassed a record of 70-31 in addition to making three NCAA Tournament appearances. Friday morning, he accepted an offer to become the new head coach at (the) Ohio State University.

This is certainly a blow to Butler, but it is time to look towards the future and at who could be the next guy to take the torch as the head coach. There are guys like Tom Crean on the market, but Butler’s history tends to shift towards coaches with history in or around the program.

There will be lots of discussion surrounding current assistant coach Terry Johnson as well, but for those wondering, he falls at No. 6 and just outside my top five potential candidates for the job in terms of most likely to get it.

Shortly following the announcement of Holtmann leaving for Ohio State, a preliminary list of candidates came out, with several of the presumed frontrunners poised for interviews.

Now let’s take a look at each candidate mentioned in the interviews (and one other possibility) for who might become the next head coach for the Butler Bulldogs.