When Ohio and Ohio State face off Sunday afternoon in the final pre-season game of the fall, it will be the realization of an idea that was hatched almost exactly one year ago. On October 27 of last year,
the Bobcats, coached by former Ohio State assistant Jeff Boals, went against the Buckeyes in a “secret” scrimmage in Columbus. It was Jake Diebler going up against a friend and former co-worker in Boals, as both were on Thad Matta’s Ohio State staff from 2013-2016. Diebler was Ohio State’s video coordinator; Boals was an assistant.
After the game, Diebler and Boals agreed that if possible, the teams needed to play again this season, but make sure fans could come watch.
“We talk regularly, and we wanted a good home (exhibition), open to the public, and I think Ohio absolutely brings that. It’s great for us to be playing each other, and to create accessibility (for fans) for that. We scrimmaged them last year, privately, but when the rules changed we got back together and were like ‘We need to run this back but do it in front of our fans.’”
So, after Ohio State reportedly beat the Bobcats last fall in a closed-door scrimmage, the idea was hatched to ‘run it back’ this season, but allow Buckeye, Bobcat, and all fans to come watch. Diebler is entering his 10th season at Ohio State and second as head coach. This is Boals’ second coaching stint at his alma mater, where his career began as an assistant under Larry Hunter in 1995. After several stops, including three years as the head coach of Stony Brook, Boals was hired as the head coach at OU in 2019 and is now in his seventh season.
When speaking with Land-Grant Holy Land last month, Diebler praised Boals and said how gracious he was to have been a “fly on the wall” during coaches meetings and film sessions while the two were at Ohio State together. The two remain close, and a shared reverence for the Ohio State program and the state’s rich basketball history, made Sunday’s pre-season game a no-brainer for both coaches.
“My relationship with (Jeff) is great. When I was at Ohio State with Jeff Boals and Dave Dickerson and Thad Matta, those guys were mentors to me,” he said. “I learned a lot from them. As a video coordinator I would sit, breaking down film in Jeff’s office or Dave’s office, just listen to how they recruit, what they were working on. They let me sit on their couch and just kind of be a fly on their wall. Jeff’s been really influential in my career.”
The score at the end won’t be official, and the stats will not count, but that doesn’t mean Diebler isn’t using Sunday’s game as a tool to better prepare his team for the regular season. The second-year head coach wants to see how his team responds to playing in front of a crowd for the first time together and also knows this may be the last time he can experiment with certain lineup combinations. He also wants to see if a summer spent preaching about getting up and down the floor faster will translate to live action.
“I think being in front of fans and getting used to playing in front of a crowd is important. In addition to that I want to see our improved pace. We’ve worked really hard on that, and I want to see it with the lights on, against someone else. I (also) want to see a lot of our guys play (against Ohio) and play multiple minutes. We’re still going to be processing our depth at that time and processing who can impact us where and when. But you know, making sure that we give minutes to everybody and be able to see what they can do is important too.”
And while the final score may not be indicative of the Buckeyes or Bobcats at full strength, that doesn’t mean Diebler doesn’t want to win on Sunday.
“Listen, when there’s a score, we want to compete. I want to see our competitive spirit be extremely high and play with the same urgency we talk about every day.”
Ohio State and Ohio tip off Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at the Schottenstein Center. The Buckeyes will then open the season on Monday, November 3 against the IU Indy Jaguars. Tickets can be purchased here, and start as low as $7.
