Can DePaul take another step forward this season?

We’re eight years removed from Chris Holtmann’s Butler tenure, and it’s easy to forget just how good he was in his first stint as a Big East head coach.

He took over at Butler during a somewhat tenuous time — the Bulldogs were two years removed from losing Brad Stevens, and went 14-17 overall and 4-14 in league play in their first season in the Big East with Brandon Miller at the helm.

Miller left after one season as head coach, and Holtmann took over.

What Holtmann accomplished in three years there, followed by the downward trajectory of the program since he left, is telling.

Butler reached the NCAA Tournament in all three years with Holtmann at the helm. Not only did they make it, they won a game in all three, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2017.

The Bulldogs won 23, 22, and 25 games during this stretch. Holtmann was named Big East Coach of the Year in 2017 — his final season with Butler — as he left for Ohio State that spring.

Holtmann next found success early in Columbus. They reached the Tournament in four of his first five seasons (the 2020 tourney was cancelled), and won a game in three of them.

He faltered late in his Ohio State tenure, finishing a combined 9-25 in Big Ten play his final two seasons, but his ten years as a head man at Butler and Ohio State included both Big East and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors and NCAA Tournament appearances in seven of the nine tournaments played.

Butler, meanwhile, fell off a cliff after Holtmann departed. They reached the NCAA Tournament in 2018 and were a likely tourney team in ‘20, but they’ve had five straight losing seasons in the Big East.

Now, Holtmann is in Year Two at DePaul, taking on the significant challenge of rebuilding a program that has had just one winning conference record since joining the Big East in 2006, and hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2004.

What’s ahead at DePaul