Ohio State Basketball: 9 candidates to replace Chris Holtmann as Head Coach
By Joey Loose
Lamont Paris
We’ve presented these names strictly in alphabetical order so it’s almost fitting that the final name might be one of the best fits. It’s a name that would have been way out there a few seasons ago, but recent success as a head coach pairs nicely with Big Ten familiarity for Paris, who himself is a native of Ohio.
He was born and raised not far from Toledo before attending and coaching at Wooster in Ohio. His first D1 coaching experience came as an assistant at Akron before a long stint at Wisconsin, including for two Final Four appearances under Bo Ryan. Paris’s head coaching journey started at Chattanooga in 2017 and concluded with a 27-win season and trip to the Big Dance in 2022. He’s spent these last two years at South Carolina and is in the midst of a breakthrough, leading the Gamecocks to an astounding 21-3 start to this season.
Bringing an Ohio native with recent success to Columbus sounds great at first, and that’s even before you consider his previous success on Big Ten benches. Obviously, things would be different running his own program, though Paris is already showing major success in year two in a very tough SEC. There’s obviously no guarantee of success with the Buckeyes, but he’s shown that he gets results at the schools he’s coached at this past decade.
We’ve concluded our deep dive into nine potential candidates for the Ohio State head coaching job. Remember that his was not an all-inclusive list and it’s possible that the Buckeyes consider someone from outside these nine names. Who among this list would be the best fit in Columbus for the future?