I think Walker has already announced he is gone. He has a small child and plans to try and play professionally ASAP I believe.
I’m anything but shocked by today’s outcome. This was one of the worst really good teams I can remember. That’s odd to say, but they just had a very low floor because of how inefficient Washington is. They were vulnerable to pretty much every team in the dance if he put up a patented 30% shooting night with 15 misses. As the year wore on, this went from a deep team that could overwhelm you with depth to gradually seeing player after player fall off the map. By the end, Ahrens, Town, Brown and Jallow were just guys in a jersey. Anything remotely productive from them felt like manna from heaven.
Liddell is very good, but he started pressing as the year went on and all too often got in the mode where he predetermined he was going to get a shot off or die trying late in games.
I’m not very impressed with Holtman. Still hasn’t got beyond the 2nd round. He was absolutely brutal in late games this year. He for some reason hitched his wagon to Washington’s decision making which is akin to letting a compulsive gambler manage your financial portfolio. The 2 seed looked sexy and was earned, but this team still only finished 5th in the conference and lost 10 games in a shortened season.
Ultimately, when you have sketchy guard play and no size, this team wasn‘t a serious threat. I thought they would peak at the Sweet 16 unless some really wonky things happened in their bracket, but I was mentally prepared for early disaster. They have just been unbelievably bad at finishing games all year, so unless they were up big going into the final 5 minutes, it was always going to get very uncomfortable.
I’m not ready to fire coach yet, but the lack of player development is concerning. That was a trademark of the Matta era and became impossible to ignore when the recruiting started to slip. It looks like Holtman is trending up in the recruiting side of things, which is much needed. Too many severely limited players that have not grown during their time on campus have been passing through Columbus lately. If your players are not improving each year, you better be bringing in top talent from the get go.