One more media days interview: DePaul coach Chris Holtmann joins the pod with a lookahead to Year 2 in Chicago

Summary

Eye On College Basketball – Episode Summary

Episode: One more media days interview: DePaul coach Chris Holtmann joins the pod with a lookahead to Year 2 in Chicago
Date: October 27, 2025
Host: Matt Norlander
Guest: Chris Holtmann, Head Coach of DePaul Men’s Basketball

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Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth interview with DePaul head coach Chris Holtmann, focusing on the transition into his second year at the program, key returning and new players, how analytics drive recruiting and roster building, reflections on Year 1’s remarkable improvement, and what lies ahead for DePaul in the Big East. Holtmann and Norlander also discuss program culture, Chicago life, and the local sports scene, adding context and warmth to the conversation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Preseason Perspective and Team Depth

• Holtmann shares classic coach optimism for the preseason but tempers expectations about the size of his rotation as the year progresses.
  • Quote: “We will play a probably a 9 or a 10 man rotation to start. I don't know if it'll look like that in January, though.” (03:27 – Holtmann)
• Touches on how expectations for a 10-man rotation often shift once the season begins.
  • Quote: “Check back in January.” (03:07 – Holtmann)

Returning Players and Leadership

• C.J. Gunn earns preseason honors and emerges as a team leader after transferring from Indiana and earning minutes last season.
  • Quote: “I'm happy for CJ because that's, that's been something he's earned through a couple tough years at Indiana... now they have to be able to influence the team in a positive direction, take on a leadership role, which is a whole nother deal.” (03:41 – Holtmann)
• Holtmann is challenging returning players to grow into leadership roles, acknowledging the jump from being a solid contributor to being a team influencer.

Key Newcomers & Under-the-Radar Adds

• Caleb Banks: Transferred from Tulane, previously Indiana; highlighted for versatility and fitting the mold of successful Holtmann forwards.
  • “When you look at guys throughout our our time, whether at Butler, at Ohio State. So he'll be utilized in our system a lot for sure.” (04:41 – Holtmann)
• Brandon Macklin: Transfer from Radford, described as an under-the-radar addition with strong analytics, expected to impact both ends.
  • “Really high level analytics that we felt like would project for the next level. Even though he's jumping up a level.” (04:41 – Holtmann)

Data-Driven Recruiting & Evaluations

• Explains the blend of seeing players live and using analytics to project transfer success.
  • Quote: “It's a blend for sure. Just like the plus minus throughout the year. It is what your eyes see, but it is also maybe what you can't see or what you might have a personal bias towards as a coach...” (05:48 – Holtmann)
• DePaul uses both external analytics services and internal data to evaluate how past players succeeded at higher levels, aiming to avoid biases.

Reflections on Year One

• DePaul improved from a KenPom ranking of 304 to 122, and from 3 to 14 wins—a nation-leading leap.
  • Quote: “We took the biggest jump from any team in the country, Ken Palm. But listen, we had a, we had a large gap there, right. A big jump to make. And now that that shrunk, the deal is can we continue to improve and grow and take incremental steps moving forward?” (07:10 – Holtmann)
• Honest assessment of Year 1 struggles, especially in physical competitiveness and rebounding within Big East play.
  • “We had several double digit games. We certainly had a couple that could have went the other way. But we had a lot of non competitive games in league play, if I'm being honest... Just the physical strength, the physical dynamic of this league.” (07:10 – Holtmann)
• Emphasizes need to shrink “the competitive gap” and keep improving program toughness.

Priorities for Year Two

• Top focus areas for improvement:
  1. Offensive Efficiency: “We have to be more efficient offensively than what we were last year... that's number one.” (09:05 – Holtmann)
  2. Rebounding: On both ends, especially against physical conference teams. “If you can't rebound against St. John's the game will not be close.” (09:05 – Holtmann)
  3. Defensive Efficiency
• All three areas are being heavily monitored and addressed with program goals.

Program and Campus Culture

• Biggest “misnomer” about DePaul is under-appreciation of the Lincoln Park campus and environment.
  • Quote: “If you've never visited Lincoln park in the campus, you'd be shocked at how. How the campus sits in the city. And it's a really cool environment, right?” (10:05 – Holtmann)
• Notes surprise at the passionate, loyal DePaul fanbase—"they can be a little salty at times with people who might use us as a punching bag"—and pride in their resilience.

Chicago Life and Local Sports

• Conversation shifts to the Bears’ strong start (4-2) and how the city is “loving the Bears, loving what they’re doing.”
  • Quote: “It's a Bears town right now. It is a Bears town.” (11:50 – Holtmann)
• Holtmann shares his enjoyment of recommended local pizza (Pequods) and jokes about the Chicago sports experience.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Year 1 Growth:
  “We took the biggest jump from any team in the country, Ken Palm.”
  (07:10 – Chris Holtmann)

• On Preseason Coach Optimism:
  “Check back in January.”
  (03:07 – Chris Holtmann)

• On Using Analytics in Recruiting:
  “It's a blend for sure. Just like the plus minus throughout the year. It is what your eyes see, but it is also maybe what you can't see or what you might have a personal bias towards as a coach...”
  (05:48 – Chris Holtmann)

• On DePaul's Fanbase:
  “We have a pretty ardent fan base that has loved this program and stayed with us through a couple decades of tough years. I don't think I knew that as well. And they can be a little salty at times with people who might use us as a punching bag.”
  (10:05 – Chris Holtmann)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:42 — Start of Interview: Introduction & preseason optimism
• 03:34 — C.J. Gunn’s breakout and leadership expectations
• 04:41 — Key newcomers (Caleb Banks, Brandon Macklin)
• 05:31 — Discussing analytics and the transfer portal
• 06:41 — Reflecting on DePaul’s massive Year 1 improvement
• 09:05 — Year 2 focus areas: offense, rebounding, defense
• 10:05 — The DePaul campus and Chicago environment
• 11:40 — Bears conversation and living in Chicago

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Episode Tone & Style

This episode maintained a friendly, open, and slightly joking conversational style, with Matt Norlander warming up the discussion with media day wit and plenty of real talk. Holtmann was candid but upbeat, mixing humility about DePaul’s challenges with confidence in the program's direction.

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Final Thoughts

Eye On College Basketball provides a balanced interview capturing both the granular details of DePaul’s basketball development and the larger picture of culture-building under Chris Holtmann. The discussion is valuable for DePaul fans, college basketball observers, and anyone interested in program-building philosophy in the high-stakes world of NCAA hoops.

Transcript

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[Matt (Interviewer)]

DePaul's Chris Holtman joins us. I did not interview you on the podcast last year. In year one, I think that was, I think that was actually Holtman's demand. And so now for his rider, he must be interviewed on the pod. It's great to see you, man.

[Chris Holtman]

Yeah, you too.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

How, how you feeling about the group, man?

[Chris Holtman]

Good.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Yeah, good. What's standing out so far in the first, you know, four, six weeks of preseason?

[Chris Holtman]

You know how it is, Matt. Everybody's optimistic this time.

[Jack Archer Representative]

Yeah.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Tell me you're going to go 10 deep. Right now I'm waiting for another coach.

[Chris Holtman]

10 deep. Is this going to be the deal?

[Siya Najad]

Yes.

[Chris Holtman]

Check back in January.

[Siya Najad]

Exactly.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Like seven or eight. I know. I got coaches swearing they're going 10 deep. I think Willard told me he's going 11, so I'm holding him to that.

[Chris Holtman]

He might.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Yeah, we'll see.

[Chris Holtman]

He might. But you know, coach. Yeah, coaches say that early and then, you know, they hear these sayings like Pat Riley used to say, trust eight or play seven. Trust. Play eight, Trust seven.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Yes.

[Chris Holtman]

It gets shortened, but we will play a probably a 9 or a 10 man rotation to start. I don't know if it'll look like that in January, though.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

C.J. gunn's the one guy that got preseason accolades here on, on media day. What have you seen and are you expecting him to be your most impactful player?

[Chris Holtman]

Yeah, I think when you look at our roster, one, I'm happy for CJ because that's, that's been something he's earned through a couple tough years at Indiana where he was in and out of the lineup. You young process for, for, for a kid. And then he had a good year last year for us. I think for him. We have three returning players at all starter games for us. Matt, he, Layton and nj. They last year were kind of just worried about themselves being good players at this level because they hadn't done that yet. And now they've got to grow their own games and now they have to be able to influence the team in a positive direction, take on a leadership role, which is a whole nother deal. So, so I'm challenging them with that. But I'm happy that he's got this preseason honor.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Who else are you expecting to be impactful and help the program? We'll talk big picture. What you did last year in just a second. But who should I be? The college basketball community, the ball fans, who should we be expecting to be immediately impactful first two, three weeks of the season?

[Chris Holtman]

I think your people, colleagues in the media would immediately talk about a guy like Caleb Banks who was at Indiana with cj, then went to Tulane and had a good year. He's a versatile 6, 8 forward force guys we've had success with in the past. When you look at guys throughout our our time, whether at Butler, at Ohio State. So he'll be utilized in our system a lot for sure. I would point to another guy, Brandon Macklin, who's a transfer a little bit under the radar transfer from Radford, who I think has the ability to play both ends, impact both ends. When you look at his analytics coming in, which is what we do, Matt, you know, I'm sure a lot of programs do that. You're looking at their analytics from their previous places. Really high level analytics that we felt like would project for the next level. Even though he's jumping up a level.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

How does, how have you found that's working for you in terms of when you're looking at the portal trying to get players analy that fit and then you got to meet them and actually hope, you know, even though these can be fast courtships, how much are you trusting stuff that your eyes might not be seeing, I wonder. There's got to be something of an art to that, right?

[Chris Holtman]

There is. There is. It's a blend for sure. Just like the plus minus throughout the year. It is what your eyes see, but it is also maybe what you can't see or what you might have a personal bias towards as a coach or a coaching staff that the numbers will say, hey, that that doesn't line up with what gives you the best chance to win. I hope I'm making sense.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Yes, of course.

[Chris Holtman]

But there definitely is. It's something we've leaned into and not only are we gathering data from places who can help us with transfers and how they would project, we're also gathering in house data. Okay, how did these players that we had in the past project to the next level? Whether it was a jump in level or whether it was high major to high major. So I think all those things play an important role, but I have leaned into that aspect of evaluating players.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

All right, let's go back and look at year one real quick here. So you last season, DePaul made a big jump at Ken Palm. So you finished last season 122 in the country. Now the year before, year before you got there 304. So that's a massive jump. They went from three wins to 14. It's 11 win jump. And then you started off well and then it was obviously bumpy in league play. You finished 14 and 20 overall. You made big strides. How would you overall encompass what the year one experience was like for you?

[Chris Holtman]

Well, you know we, we took the biggest jump from any team in the country, Ken Palm. But listen, we had a, we had a large gap there, right. A big jump to make. And now that that shrunk, the deal is can we continue to improve and grow and take incremental steps moving forward? So I was pleased with our competitiveness for the most part last year, Matt. I think I thought in year one we wanted to instill a level of competitiveness and I think we saw that both throughout the year and also as we finished the year. But as you mentioned, let's be real now. We had several games in league play that got away from us. We had several double digit games. We certainly had a couple that could have went the other way. But we had a lot of non competitive games in league play, if I'm being honest. So for us as a program moving forward, we have to be able to physically become more competitive in our league, which I thought we struggled with at times. Just the physical strength, the physical dynamic of this league. And then we, we've just got to shrink that, that competitive gap that I felt was there in too many games. I love how we finished the year. I like a lot of what we did last year, I really do in terms of year one and our finish was really good both in the regular season and right here. But we've got a long ways to go to continue to narrow that competitive gap. Okay.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

And as you'd make those advancements ideally in year two, if I go in, you know, to your office and there's a whiteboard with certain goals, if that's even exists. Like what are specifically what are you highly confident Holt is going to be better team wise than what was he last year? It can be, it can be stuff in the, you know, philosophically as a program, we're going to do this and. But if you want to get into statistically, you know, where are you going to make the improvements that you just, you, you know, you'd bank a month's salary on? This will be better.

[Chris Holtman]

Yeah. For one, we have to be more efficient offensively than what we were last year. We played a little bit different last year than I had played in the previous six, seven years, but we weren't as efficient offensively as we needed to be. When you go back and you look at the numbers. So that's number one. Okay, that's number one. We have to be able to rebound the ball better on both ends. We. We struggled in this league. If you can't rebound against St. John's the game will not be close. Right. You can't rebound against UConn and other teams. It'll get away from you. So we've got to rebound the ball better, and then we've got to improve in our defensive efficiency. So those three things, we've really hammered. They're big, right? They're big statistical things. There's a lot that goes into those three things, but those are the three things we've challenged ourselves with getting better at.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Okay. I want more on DePaul, then. I'm not letting you get out of here without talking about my Bears. What's the biggest, now that you've been on campus for. Wow. I guess close to 18 months.

[Chris Holtman]

Yeah.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Biggest misnomer about DePaul is what I think.

[Chris Holtman]

If you've never visited Lincoln park in the campus, you'd be shocked at how. How the campus sits in the city. And it's a really cool environment, right? It is. You. You came. We had lunch just when I took over the job. It's a really cool environment. Kind of lined houses, trees, neighborhood feel plopped right in the city. You can get to downtown in 10 minutes. I had no idea about that. I didn't know what to think. You know, I had never been to campus before. That's. That's probably number one. And then, you know, we have a pretty ardent fan base that has loved this program and stayed with us through a couple decades of tough years. I don't think I knew that as well. And they can be a little salty at times with people who might use us as a punching bag. And we've gotta. We've gotta earn what's coming our way to where that doesn't happen anymore. But those. Probably two things.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Yeah. Well, listen, the. The Yukon, Providence, Villanova, there are certain fans. St. John's there are certain fan bases that have a presence online. DePaul, sneaky, snarky. And they'll come and find you. No doubt about that. We appreciate it. No doubt. How. How's Chicago right now? Bears are 4 and 2. I'm hopeful, but, like, tough part of the schedule here. I'm not a Bears fan.

[Chris Holtman]

Don't say that.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Listen, Baltimore game. They're going to be playing for their lives here. But 4 and 2 is, is a nice start. How is, how's the, how's the city taken to this? The first four game win streak, by the way, for the Bears? I think in five years or six years. It's been a minute.

[Chris Holtman]

Well, I, for you, you first of all, a couple things right now. Let me give you props for one good recommendation. Pequods.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Yes.

[Chris Holtman]

Okay.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Well done on that, Chicago. Yes.

[Chris Holtman]

Well done on that. That's really good pizza. It's a Bears town right now. It is a Bears town. This, this place is, is loving the Bears, loving what they're doing. It's been fun for me to see. You look at the development of, of Caleb Williams and that whole group. It's been really fun to see. I think they're on the verge of some really successful, rewarding years for guys like yourself who've been waiting for a long time.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Yeah.

[Chris Holtman]

For that.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

I'm not DePaul fan in some regards when it comes to this, so. No, I, I hear you hope to get out there to catch a game next year and I'll, I'll know you've broken through when you, when you hit me up and you share a photo from like a luxury suite at Soldier Field or something like that.

[Chris Holtman]

We got some more winning to do before that happens. Right now I haven't got the invite. I'm still waiting on that.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

I know.

[Chris Holtman]

But we'll see. I dig it.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

All right, Chris Holtman to Paul should be in for a solid, too. Making a jump in the, in the Big east. And I appreciate you joining the pop, man.

[Chris Holtman]

Okay, thanks, bud.

[Matt (Interviewer)]

Thank you.

[Chris Holtman]

Appreciate it, man. You can be anything. This I.

[Siya Najad]

Paramount Podcasts. What's up, everyone? It's Siya Najad from Fantasy Football Today dfs, a weekly NFL daily fantasy show that's a part of the CBS Sports Podcast Network. If you're looking for NFL game by game previews, which players stock is up or down, and DFS strategies and advice, Mike McClure, Meg Shoup and I have you covered every single week. Download and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and anywhere podcasts are found. Make sure to turn on those notifications so you don't miss a single pick all season long. Good luck.