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https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball/2024/02/145386/ohio-state-blows-its-second-18-point-second-half-lead-of-the-season-falls-to-indiana-76-73

Do you ever get the feeling of Deju Vu? 

Ohio State blew an 18 point second half lead against a bad team and if that doesn't sound familiar it should because it already happened earlier this season. 

https://www.insidethehall.com/2024/02/07/ius-biggest-comeback-in-over-25-years-yields-a-road-win-against-ohio-state/

The juxtaposition here between this being an historic comeback for IU and the loss being just another game for Ohio State is striking.

It appears that some delusional tOSU fans cough-Max-cough still haven't accepted reality but this team, just like last year's tOSU team isn't just bad, these two are generationally awful.

Lol what generation would that be?

Dunno.... Go look at the OSU history... Ask yourself how many times Ohio State has finished in the bottom two spots of the conference in consecutive years (as it appears will happen):

• 1929-30 and 1930-31 -- Harold Olsen -- 9th in conference both years. Coach survived (different times) but he also had a Big Ten Title to his name before that which Holtmann does not. 
• 1975-76 and 1976-77 -- Fred Taylor followed by Eldon Miller -- 10th in conference both years. Taylor retired and Miller improved from 10th his first year to 6th, and then railed off 7 straight seasons in the top half of the conference, if never actually winning a league title.
• 1994-95, 1995-96, and 1996-97 -- Randy Ayers -- 10th, 10th, 9th in three consecutive years. Fired. (Technically that final year was 3rd to last in the conference, as PSU was already a member.) 

Those are the only times it's happened. 45 year gap between the first and second, 20ish year gap between the second and third, and 30ish year gap between that incident and the current performance, if it holds up that they finished 13th last year and are currently 13th this year. 

I'd call that "generationally bad" performance at Ohio State, wouldn't you? 

Hard to say it is worse than Jim O'Brien's last two years, which were both bad and landed OSU on probation and with a postseason ban.

Well in a smaller conference O'Brien didn't finish in either of the last two spots except for his first year (which was coming off the mess inherited from Ayers).

With only 16 league games per season O'Brien at least got 15 wins across those two seasons. Even with a larger 20-game league season, Holtmann would have to go 7-1 the rest of the way this year to equal that performance.

But to be as bad, he'd have to commit some egregious NCAA violations on the way out. It's a special sort of terrible two years where you also doink your successor in his first year. His last team finished 148th on KenPom. This team would probably have to lose out by double digits in every game to get to that mark.

You're right... They'll probably only lose 5 or 6 of those by double digits 

As for O'Brien's final season, it's amazing what "one year" can do. Had the NBA's "one year" rule been implemented "one year" earlier, then Lebron James would have been starting at PG in place of Brandon Fuss-Cheatham. So right there you would have replaced the worst starter on the team with the best player in the World. "But that team was horrible!" you howl. "Lebron wouldn't have made a difference!" you insist.

But I beg to differ. Not only does he replace the worst starter on the team in Fuss-Cheatham, but with him commanding so much attention from opposing teams, it's entirely possible/probable that Terrence Dials doesn't suffer the season ending back injury prior to Big Ten play. So you would have had those two as a pretty mean 1-5 duo. So Brandon Fuss-Cheatam and Vladimir Radinovic would have been solid backups, instead of shaky starters. 

Then Lebron would have been flanked by JJ Sullinger and Tony Stockman, who were both pretty solid players. Stockman was a big time chucker, but Lebron always likes to have a guy on the outside that's not afraid to shoot wide open threes. Plus Stockman always led the team in steals. So his defensive contributions were vastly overlooked. (He's also won multiple NCs as a collegiate HC, fwiw)

The 4 position would have been the biggest question mark. There would have been a Freshman Ivan "the microwave" Harris, who along with James would have been the top two recruits out of Ohio that year. Then there was Matt Sylvester, who could obviously hit a clutch shot (Illinois the following year). 

I think that would have been one of the greatest OSU teams of all time. But instead it was an absolute chitshow. 

Lol what generation would that be?

Well, @betarhoalphadelta covered this pretty well, this team clearly is generationally bad.  

Hard to say it is worse than Jim O'Brien's last two years, which were both bad and landed OSU on probation and with a postseason ban.

But to be as bad, he'd have to commit some egregious NCAA violations on the way out. 

Here you are conflating two separate issues.  

Look, nobody here wants to become Auburn or Michigan.  Rule breaking here is a firing offense, not something to be celebrated.  

I appreciate that Holtmann appears to be a fine human and hasn't gotten us in any hot water with the NCAA.  AFAIK, he is a great guy.  That said, he isn't getting $4.5M just to be a good guy and not break any major NCAA rules.  You or I could do that and I don't know your financial situation but I'd be happy to do it for 1/4 of the money.  

Holtmann is being paid to win BB games and he is generationally bad at it.  Even just looking at single seasons, Ohio State finished second-to-last in the B1G last year.  The last time they were that bad was ~30 years ago at the end of Randy Ayers' tenure.  Randy Ayers was given an opportunity to turn things around because he had two S16's, two league titles, and an E8 to his credit.  Holtmann has none of those things.  

Prior to the mid 90's, the last time tOSU was this bad was twice in the mid 1970's in Fred Taylor's last and Eldon Miller's first year.  Miller went on to make two S16's.  Taylor was an absolute legend at tOSU with:

• Seven league titles
• Five E8's
• Four F4's
• Three NCG appearances
• One NC

Prior to the mid 70's, the last time tOSU was this bad was in the 1950's under Floyd Stahl.  His teams finished last or second to last in the league in 1951 and 1955.  

Prior to that it was the season during which the Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor.  That was under coach Harold Olsen who also had five league titles, four F4's, and an NCG appearance.  Near as I can tell, Olsen was the most feast-or-famine coach in the history of tOSU BB.  He had the aforementioned great seasons but he also finished last or second-to-last in 1923, 1930, 1931, 1934, and 1942.  

Here is the thing about Olson though:
If you look at his tenure he coached the Buckeyes for 24 seasons from 1922/23 through 1945/46.  In those 24 seasons he had:

• Five league titles - average of about one every five years
• Four F4's - Average of one every six years
• Five last or second-to-last place seasons - average of about one every five years

I'd take that over Holtmann's record in a heartbeat.  Holtmann is now worse on the bottom end with two last or second-to-last place seasons in seven years which is MUCH more frequent than Olson and Holtmann has no top-end to balance against that.  He has zero league titles, only was even remotely close in year #1 with Matta's guys and has not advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since he was coaching at Butler and lucked into a 13-12 path.  

Going back 102 years to 1922/23 (Olson's first season), here are all of the Buckeyes' last or second-to-last place seasons in the league:

• 2024 - Holtmann (barring a massive turnaround)
• 2023 - Holtmann
• 2017 - Matta, his last year
• 2004 - O'Brien, his last year
• 1998 - O'Brien, his first year
• 1997 - Ayers, his last year
• 1996 - Ayers, his penultimate year
• 1995 - Ayers, his third-to-last year
• 1977 - Miller, his first year
• 1976 - Taylor, his last year
• 1955 - Stahl
• 1951 - Stahl, his first year
• 1942 - Olsen
• 1934 - Olsen
• 1931 - Olsen
• 1930 - Olsen
• 1923 - Olsen, his first year

Holtmann and Stahl are the only two guys on that list not to offset these bad years with a league title or S16.  

Maybe 17 in 102 years isn't quite "generational" but doing it in back-to-back years is (see Beta's post) and in any case, you are picking nits here because:

• It is still REALLY bad, and
• With the notable exception of Floyd Stahl, all the other tOSU coaches to have teams this bad offset those bad teams with really good teams that did good things like win the league and play in meaningful NCAA Tournament games.  Holtmann has no top-end to offset his bad teams.