The DePaul Blue Demons defeated the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs 93-62 — the team where head coach Chris Holtmann got his start in collegiate head coaching. 

“I’ve got a lot of affection for that school,” Holtmann said while speaking to the media before the Gardner-Webb game. 

In three years, Holtmann and Gardner-Webb — and former athletic director Chuck Burch — built something within the program. In the third year, Holtmann said they “could really see some benefits.”

“We won over 20 games and started to really see the fruits of our labor there,” Holtmann said about that third year. “I just owe so much to that school, in particular to former AD Chuck Burch.”

For the 2025-26 season, Holtmann is in year two of rebuilding DePaul basketball. But before Holtmann became the head coach of DePaul men’s basketball — and even began coaching in the Big East — Holtmann was on the opposite side of the bench from DePaul. 

After a four-point loss at home against Lipscomb, the Runnin’ Bulldogs traveled the next day — the day of the game — to Allstate Arena to face the Blue Demons on Nov. 15, 2012. Holtmann led the Runnin’ Bulldogs to a 71-59 upset victory over the Blue Demons in round one of the Cancún Challenge. 

In the final year of his three-year stint with the Runnin’ Bulldogs, Holtmann was named Big South Conference and National Association of Basketball Coaches District 3 Coach of the Year. He later coached at Butler — a Big East rival — and Ohio State. 

Fast forward to 2025, Holtmann is now coaching DePaul basketball. 

“It’s playing with the edge, respecting opponent, don’t flinch, truly just going out there and competing, representing DePaul basketball,” redshirt junior guard RJ Smith said of the team’s principles in a media availability before the home opener. 

Although the Blue Demons won the season’s home opener 92-62 against Chicago State, Holtmann was — and still is not — content with the team’s performance, and he is working to improve it. 

Holtmann said he had “a little sour taste” in his mouth about the second half of the game, noting that the team played well in the first. On the defensive end, the second-half defense was not as good as it was in the first half. 

“I did not think we played as detailed as we needed to or as hard as we needed to,” Holtmann said after the game about what changed on the defensive end in the second half. “I didn’t think we played as smart as we needed to.”

Holtmann is pushing his players to fix the second-half issues; he is challenging them “to play with more detail and more sustained effort” on defense and the glass.  

“You’re challenging them to do that longer and harder than what they’re doing right now, with more attention to detail,” Holtmann said in a Nov. 6 media availability. “Offensively, to play with more purpose, better spacing, more ball movement.” 

How does Holtmann challenge his players?

“It’s a lot of film work,” Holtmann said. “A lot of film breakdown, individual conversations, and then practice.”

The team had “long film sessions” in response to the 66-53 loss to the University at Buffalo on Nov. 11.

“You’re looking at all the defensive and offensive things that you need to,” Holtmann said in a Nov. 13 media availability. “You’re looking at things like our spacing offensively, our ball movement. Defensively, you’re looking at all the things, rebounding effort.”

Holtmann said that since basketball is a long season, it’s about taking feedback from every game and growing.

Junior guard Layden Blocker said in a postgame press conference that the coaches gave the team confidence after the loss to Buffalo. 

“I feel like everybody, including myself, been playing passive the past few games,” Blocker said. “And I think that’s what they was realizing, just everybody’s playing timid. So they just gave everybody confidence, told everybody just to hang loose and play, and I feel like that’s what we need.”

In the media availability before the Gardner-Webb game, Holtmann said that the Northwestern game “was a very clean, good offensive game.” The team simplified its approach on offense in response to the previous games. 

“You don’t want your players overthinking,” Holtmann said. “So that’s why we had to simplify our scheme a little bit and then also look at maybe creating more space. And that’s what we did after, poor performances the prior game and a half offensively, really two games offensively.” 

Holtmann said that “wholesale changes” are ones “you don’t want to make.” While DePaul did not make those types of changes, there was a “somewhat significant change.”

“You don’t want to make that so early in the season, but I also felt like … we needed more instinctive play and a little bit less thinking,” Holtmann said. “A byproduct of that was a really good offensive game.”

Holtmann and DePaul men’s basketball are trying to change the program, and that is apparent to senior forward NJ Benson. 

“The culture is changing, I think that the coaching staff and the players thats came in, we’re trying to turn DePaul around from what it was before we got here,” Benson said. 

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• Holtmann’s second year with DPU men’s basketball
• Head coach Chris Holtmann announces DePaul men’s basketball roster updates
• NJ Benson and CJ Gunn’s early efficiency propelling team to a 2-0 start