New coach enters critical offseason
COLUMBUS — The time will come when Jake Diebler will be able to reflect on everything that has transpired in the last eight weeks.
Tuesday night was not that time. Wednesday wasn’t either. Truthfully, it might be a while before Ohio State’s men’s basketball coach will be able to fully process a season that saw his status rise from associate to interim to head coach.
“The first thing that comes to mind, it’s been an emotional rollercoaster but I’m honored and grateful for the opportunity to continue serving this program as head coach,” Diebler said after Tuesday night’s season-ending, 79-77 loss to Georgia in the NIT quarterfinals. “I take the responsibility that comes with that very seriously. We have big goals and my focus is not so much reflecting on that but it’s more about focusing on moving to the future.”
As he prepares to steward Ohio State into the future, the only past Diebler is interested in spending much time dwelling on is the foundation laid by the program’s former players. Although he joked at his introductory press conference that he was never good enough to have played for Ohio State, Diebler has spoken passionately and often about the opportunity as head coach to serve a program that matters a great deal to himself and his family.
Even in that lens, though, there’s no denying how eventful the last six-plus weeks have been since Diebler was asked to replace the fired Chris Holtmann on Valentine’s Day. Under Diebler, the Buckeyes went 8-3, flirted with playing their way onto the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble and ultimately bowed out with the most single-season wins since the 2017-18 season. Those Buckeyes, in Holtmann’s first season, finished 25-9.
These Buckeyes closed with a 22-14 record. Most importantly to Diebler, they played to a standard he wants Ohio State to uphold going forward.
“My first thought after the game was, I thought we fought in a manner that represented what this program needs to be about,” he said. “We’ve talked about extending the finality of this group as long as we possibly can and fighting for each other and playing as much as we can, and it hit in that moment to some degree that we did a good job doing that in extending that.”
During a weekend where Diebler was named head coach, Ohio State fell short of the NCAA Tournament and the players voted to accept an NIT bid, the Buckeyes committed to playing the season as long as possible. No players entered the transfer portal while sophomore guards Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle, among others, battled through injuries to continue playing in the country’s secondary college basketball tournament.
Fifth-year forward and captain Jamison Battle, after having played his final collegiate game, credited Diebler for that.
“That goes with the head of the snake in coach Diebler
for what he did for us and the sense of urgency he brought to us,” he said of how the Buckeyes played their final six weeks. “And just the group of guys we had. We’ve known since the summer what kind of talent we had and how good we could be and we showed that in these final stretch of games. It sucks that we didn’t have more time.”
There won’t be time for Diebler to reflect on what changed or the wins the Buckeyes were able to accumulate on his watch. The transfer portal opened more than a week ago, high school recruiting will soon ramp up and he still has a coaching staff to fill out for next season.
When all that’s accomplished, maybe the calendar will allow Diebler a chance to properly process the whirlwind that the season became. Tuesday night, the focus was about the end of the 202324 season and about being better going forward.
“Tonight with our team was certainly about reflecting on them and what they’ve done, this group,” he said after the loss. “I don’t know that I’ll spend much time sitting back thinking about how this has impacted me personally. I feel like I’ve been given an extended opportunity to serve this program and certainly in a different role that requires me to raise my level.”