Longtime assistant Netti ready for new role

For the past five years, Mike Netti has had a seat on the Ohio State bench. Often, it’s been wedged in between the players and Quadrian Banks, the team’s strength and conditioning coach.

That changes this year. After half a decade of serving as special assistant to the head coach, Netti was announced as the final full-time member of Chris Holtmann’s coaching staff. The move is a continuation of a relationship between the two that dates back roughly two decades and one Netti said he’s ready to take on.

When the 2022-23 season opens, he’ll be in a different seat with different expectations and duties. Not everything will change, though

“The biggest change will be is now I can coach our players,” Netti said. “I’ve been able to coach the coaches. I’ve been able to continue to give basketball insight as a special assistant and now that mentoring, that leadership will now be for our players.”

This isn’t Netti’s first time as an assistant. He’s filled the role at Gardner-webb, both alongside and then under Holtmann, and had been at East Carolina for four seasons before signing on when Holtmann was hired at Ohio State in 2017. In doing so, Netti gave up his whistle for a job that involved a lot of time at a computer.

As special assistant, Netti was able to help mentor guys off the court and provide academic assistance. In coaching staff meetings, he was able to provide another informed voice to the discussion after diving deeply into video and helping craft game strategies.

Now, he’ll be in front of the team alongside Holtmann, associate head coach Jake Diebler and new assistant Jack Owens trying to bring it all to life.

“It’s exciting to have more of a role on the court coaching,” he said. “I believe in our staff. I believe in our program. I believe in our players. It is a healthy culture, and the staff has been connected and unselfish, and that’s allowed this move to be really easy.”

He got a taste of the role last season when Holtmann and assistant coach

Ryan Pedon were forced to miss a Jan. 9 home game with Northwestern after testing positive for COVID-19. In their absences, Diebler was elevated to interim coach and Netti assumed in-game assistant coaching responsibilities as the Buckeyes went on to a 95-87 win.

“That game, moving up a seat, just doing my very best in a role that we needed that night was natural for me,” Netti said. “I’ve been in that seat before, and so coach (Holtmann) trusted me on that night and coach Diebler obviously did a great job running the program, running the team that night. I think the execution of that game plan, delivering the game plan and then obviously trusting our guys on that night, that was a fun night to be a part of.”