Ohio State University announced Friday morning that Butler men's basketball coach Chris Holtmann will be the next coach at OSU.
OSU says Holtmann will be introduced at a press conference on Monday. An athletic department spokesman says Holtmann has agreed to an eight-year contract that will pay him about $3 million per year.
The annoucement of Holtmann’s hiring comes a day after Creighton coach Greg McDermott, previously thought to be the top candidate to replace Thad Matta, tweeted that he intended to stay at Creighton.
Another top candidate, Chris Mack of Xavier University, also reportedly turned down OSU.
Holtmann was at Butler for three years and took the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament each season. He was previously the head coach at Gardner-Webb University.
At Butler, Holtmann inherited a rising program and continued the success. The team advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in March and won at least one tournament game in each of Holtmann’s seasons.
OSU surprised many people with Monday’s firing of Matta, who won the most games in program history during his 13 years at the helm. He took two teams to the Final Four, but missed the NCAA tournament in each of the last two seasons.
Matta also saw several players transfer out of the program, including four members of his 2015 recruiting class, which at the time was considered among the best in the nation.
Last month, news broke that the fifth member of the 2015 class, guard JaQuan Lyle, had quit the team a month earlier.
