Texas Basketball: 3 head coaching candidates the Longhorns should avoid

The speculation has officially begun surrounding the Texas basketball program as to who will replace Chris Beard as the next head coach. Shortlists of possible candidates have started to come out from various media outlets around the college hoops landscape. And it already sounds like some contact was made to potential head coaching candidates by Texas athletic director Chris del Conte in the last week or so.

Some of the top names that are circulating among the possible candidates to become the next men’s hoops head coach for the Longhorns are Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari, Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Eric Musselman, Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats, acting Texas head coach Rodney Terry, and Brooklyn Nets assistant coach Royal Ivey, among a few others.

However, it doesn’t look as if a clear-cut list of top candidates for the Texas job has emerged quite yet. And that’s not very surprising given that Terry and the Longhorns are still in the midst of a promising 2022-23 campaign that won’t be over for another few months.

Which possible coaching candidates should Texas basketball avoid?

One task the Longhorns can accomplish now, though, is figuring out which potential head coaching candidates won’t be good fits on the Forty Acres. With that in mind, here’s a look at three possible coaching candidates that wouldn’t be right for the Longhorns.

Chris Holtmann, Ohio State head coach

A name that I’ve seen pop up in a good amount of candidate shortlists to be the next Texas head coach is the sixth-year Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Chris Holtmann. The 2017-18 Jim Phelan Award winner was notably mentioned in a recent piece from 247Sports as a possible shortlist candidate for del Conte and the Longhorns.

Here’s an interesting quote from this CBS Sports/247Sports piece that caught my eye regarding Holtmann as a possible candidate for the Texas job.

"“Holtmann could conceivably consider a move to Texas for more or less the same reasons Smart made a move from Texas two years ago.”"

Anytime the reason why a head coaching candidate could be considered for Texas is similar to why Shaka Smart left the Longhorns for the Marquette Golden Eagles a couple of years ago, that is a bit of a red flag for me.

Texas should want to avoid any potential coaching candidates that could put the basketball program in a similar spot it was in during the six-year tenure under Smart. And the possibility of Holtmann being a candidate for this job is giving me that type of vibe.

It’s worth noting that while Holtmann has found some success as Ohio State’s head coach in the last five seasons, the Buckeyes haven’t won a Sweet 16 game to date under his guidance. Ohio State also had trouble making it out of the Round of 32 in the last few years. The Buckeyes have three straight NCAA Tournament exits either in or before the Round of 32 under Holtmann.

There is also a myriad of other issues that hiring Holtmann could bring to the Texas men’s hoops program. I just don’t believe this would be the best choice for del Conte and the Longhorns to replace Beard.