What a difference a few days makes.
96 hours removed from Ohio State’s decision to fire head men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann, the Buckeyes toppled No. 2 Purdue 73-69 at home for just their third win since early January.
Fans reacted to OSU’s massive upset on social media:
“If you told me before the season that Ohio State men’s basketball would have wins over Alabama, UCLA, West Virginia and a #2 overall Purdue…I would not have assumed that the team would have sucked so much they had to fire their coach in February,” Matt Brown tweeted.
“WELCOME BACK BUCKEYE BASKETBALL!” Adam King reported. “Ohio State takes down the second ranked Boilermakers. What a win. In Jake Diebler’s first game as interim coach he brings Buckeye nation a court storming!”
“On Wednesday, Ohio State parted ways with Chris Holtmann after it lost 9 of 11 games. Today, the Buckeyes beat Purdue. Anarchy? Nope. Just College Basketball,” said Jon Rothstein.
“Obviously, an impressive performance by Ohio State after a miserable last several weeks and the firing of Holtmann this week. I haven’t watched all their games, but the Buckeyes played much looser today,” commented Bill Rabinowitz.
“Add No. 2 Purdue at Ohio State, with an interim coach, to the insanely long list of top-10 teams losing to unranked teams on the road. What a season,” Kyle Tucker replied.
The win has to be a huge morale boost for the Buckeyes who have had a rough go of it in 2023-24. Next up for Ohio State is a two-game road trip at Minnesota and Michigan State.