From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about the things we think, but aren’t 100% confident on. You can catch up on all of the
Theme Week content here and all our “What We Think We Know” articles here.It has been over a decade since Ohio State’s men’s basketball program has been relevant. The last time the Buckeyes made the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament was in 2013.
By comparison, between
2007 and 2013, Ohio State made the second week of the tournament in five of the seven seasons. During that span, the Buckeyes reached the Final Four twice, and the national title game in 2007.
After Thad Matta and Ohio State decided to part ways, it looked like Chris Holtmann had the program on the right path, advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in his first two seasons in charge. Holtmann’s best team was arguably the 2020-21 squad, where the Buckeyes were a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament but were upset by Oral Roberts.
Holtmann slowly started to lose the team, going just 30-30 over the final 60 games of his tenure before he was fired on Valentine’s Day in 2024.
The choice to fill Holtmann’s shoes through at least the end of the 2023-24 season was assistant coach Jake Diebler, who is the brother of former Ohio State sharpshooter Jon Diebler. The team responded to the change, upsetting second-ranked Purdue in Diebler’s first game as head coach, closing out the regular season winning five of six games.
While the Buckeyes missed out on the NCAA Tournament, they did win two games in the NIT, which came after Diebler had the interim tag removed from his job title.
The move to name Diebler as permanent head coach without exploring other options was puzzling to a lot of fans. There were rumors experienced head coaches Dusty May and John Calipari would have been interested in the Ohio State job had it been open. Calipari is a legendary coach in the college ranks, and all May has done since taking over at Michigan is lead the Wolverines to a Sweet Sixteen and a national championship.
The fact that May has Michigan at the top of the college basketball world after just two seasons while Diebler and Ohio State struggled just to make the NCAA Tournament this year makes the quick decision to stick with Diebler even tougher to stomach.
Since Diebler has been head coach of the Buckeyes his teams are just 1-4 against Michigan, with the only win coming when he was an interim coach in 2024, before May took over as head coach of the Wolverines.
Diebler has taken some swings in the transfer portal, especially before his first full season as head coach when he brought in Aaron Bradshaw from Kentucky and Sean Stewart from Duke. Unfortunately neither player was able to make much of an impact. At least Diebler had better luck with Santa Clara transfer Christoph Tilly last year. While Tilly was inconsistent at times, he still was a solid contributor to a NCAA Tournament team.
Despite losing the leading scorer in school history to graduation, this is the year Jake Diebler and Ohio State have to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes have John Mobley Jr. and Amare Bynum returning from last year’s squad to step up after the departure of Thornton.
Diebler dipped into the transfer portal to bring in former Michigan and Cal player Justin Pippin, Andrija Jelavic from Kentucky, as well as a couple of other players to help give the squad depth.
The biggest reason this a make-or-break year for Jake Diebler this year is because of incoming freshman Anthony Thompson. The forward from Lebanon, Ohio is the highest-rated Ohio State prospect since Jared Sullinger in 2010, as well as the top recruit in the Big Ten heading into this season.
Even though it might be asking a lot of a freshman to lead a team on a deep run in the tournament, usually guys like Thompson are headed to the NBA after one year, so you have to make the most of his time on campus while you can.
With a lot of people still skeptical about Diebler’s ability to lead the program, if Ohio State can’t at least make the Sweet Sixteen this year it’s going to be hard to have any confidence in Diebler in the future. Diebler has promising returning starters, solid transfer portal pieces, and a superstar freshman.
Michigan and a number of other Big Ten teams are losing key players from last year, so if there was ever a year to make a serious run at a conference title then this would be the year.
Gone are the days of waiting for a couple of recruiting classes to gel and grow together. The transfer portal has completely changed roster construction in college basketball. Now coaches have to learn how to adapt quickly or get left behind.
Diebler has been making efforts in the portal, the moves just haven’t panned out like he has hoped they would. This year’s moves in the portal by Diebler better be a lot more impactful because the rest of the roster is too good to waste on another early exit in the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio State is too powerful of a program to be as mediocre as they have been over the last decade. The Buckeyes used to be considered a Final Four contender annually. Now they are constantly on the bubble to even make the tournament.
Athletic director Ross Bjork went with a young coach to try and save some money after giving Ryan Day big bucks in a contract extension. If Ohio State is successful this year it could look like a great move, but if they struggle to make the tournament again then a change has to be made.
It’s as simple as that.
