OSU hiring NC State’s Justus
Ohio State has hired Joel Justus as associate head coach after two seasons in the same position at N.C. State.
The move, announced Monday afternoon, gives first-year head coach Jake Diebler two full-time members of his coaching staff with more moves expected to be announced soon. Saturday, the Wolfpack bowed out of the NCAA Tournament with a 65-50 loss to Purdue in the Final Four.
“Joel is someone I have known for a while and I’m excited to have him join our staff,” Diebler said in a statement. “He is a well-rounded coach with great experience in the development and recruiting spaces, while winning everywhere he’s been. His vision for building a program and developing a winning culture is something I was looking for and I can’t wait for him to get started.”
N.C. State reached the NCAA Tournament in each of Justus’ two seasons with the program. Before that, he spent one season as an assistant for Bobby Hurley at Arizona State and had been on staff at Kentucky from 2014-21, the last five years as an assistant coach.
In 2020, Justus was named by ESPN as one of the nation’s top 40 coaches less than 40 years old. The Athletic also named him as one of the top 40 people in college basketball at that age. While at Kentucky, he was the lead recruiter on first-round NBA picks Shai Gilgeous-alexander, Bam Adebayo and Immanuel Quickley. While at N.C. State, he recruited DJ Horne, Michael O’connell and Jayden Taylor, all key components to this year’s Final Four run.
Justus is a UNC Wilmington graduate and has also spent time as an assistant coach at Elon as well as six seasons as a high school coach.
He is the second assistant coach announced as part of Diebler’s staff, joining former Ohio State associate coach Dave Dickerson, who has also been a head coach at Tulane and USC Upstate.
ajardy@dispatch.com