Louisville Basketball: 10 candidates to replace Chris Mack as head coach

Chris Holtmann

In finding their next basketball coach, Louisville needs to make the smart hire, not the home-run hire for the sake of making a big splash. If the attention turns towards Holtmann, maybe the Cardinals can manage to do both with one move. A native of Kentucky, Holtmann checks many of the boxes that Louisville will have when conducting their search, but would Holtmann want to relocate to Louisville?

Just over a decade ago, Holtmann was an assistant at Ohio under John Groce, but has had a meteoric rise over the last fifteen years. He got his head coaching career started with success at Gardner-Webb before winding up with the Butler job, leading the Bulldogs to four NCAA Tournament wins in three seasons. Holtmann has been head coach at Ohio State since 2017 and his Buckeyes have consistently been contenders in the Big Ten, making the NCAA Tournament each of his seasons.

The one flaw for Holtmann is that he hasn’t led Ohio State out of the opening weekend, but that shouldn’t mean anything. Mick Cronin wasn’t doing that at Cincinnati, but look at what he’s already done at UCLA. If Holtmann wants to return home to Kentucky, then Louisville could be the dream opportunity to break through and really make a name for himself. Even if he stays at Ohio State, you can expect Holtmann to do big things for years to come in college basketball.