"They didn't do anything different": Purdue HC Matt Painter disregards Chris Holtmann's firing with his post-game comments after win

After Chris Holtmann's firing, the Ohio State Buckeyes faced the No. 2 Purdue Boilermakers and registered an upset with a 73-69 scoreboard on Saturday. Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter, however, opined that Holtmann’s absence wasn’t that influential and the team would have performed similarly were he there.

Jake Diebler took the reins of the team as an interim coach after Chris Holtmann's firing on Wednesday. Bruce Thornton scored 22 points and Jamieson Battle chipped in 19 points as the team player under the new coach.

Holtmann was fired for the poor performance of the team as Ohio lost 9 of the last 11 games they played, and his dismissal sparked a debate. Athletic director Ross Bjork has been tasked to search for a new full-time replacement for the outgoing coach.

Reflecting on the game and whether the Buckeyes were a different team without Holtmann, Painter said:

"Nothing. None. If he was here, the score would've been 73-69 Ohio State. They didn't run anything different. They didn't do anything different. It's a players' game. They have good players."

Whether he was downplaying the role of the coaches in the game or providing some shield to Holtmann could be debated but he spoke highly of the team’s fighting spirit.

Fighting spirit of the Buckeyes and the cold statistics of Chris Holtmann

Matt Painter praised the athleticism and the fighting spirit of the team as a unit after his side failed to inflict a defeat. The Purdue HC had these words for Ohio State:

"That's what you don't know -- can you get them down and keep them down, and then like, they go away, which obviously didn't happen. They win the game. So you know, where's their fight? What's it going to be? I think they answered that. Their fight was great."

Chris Holtmann was able to nourish this fighting spirit during his initial years with the team. He started by having a 25-9 record in his first season and won a tournament game each year. Holtmann drove Ohio to grab the No. 2 spot in the NCAA ranking in 2021, but a 16-19 record in 2022-23 and a 14-11 record in 2023-24 showed regression which ultimately led to his dismissal.