Ohio State is betting big on Jake Diebler, the Big Ten’s youngest coach, being a little bit different

CHICAGO — Ohio State basketball is littered with new faces who left good places. There’s Joel Justus, Ohio State’s new associate head coach, fresh off helping NC State go on a magical run to the Final Four. There’s Jamall Walker, Ohio State’s presumed defensive coordinator, who left Grand Canyon after the ‘Lopes won 30 games. There’s Meechie Johnson, a twitchy fifth-year guard, who started his career at Ohio State before reviving South Carolina and leading the Gamecocks from the SEC basement to a Big Dance berth.

Remove the money that a Big Ten assistant can garner. Remove the name, image and likeness incentives. They’re all back in Columbus because they believe in the dude running things.

Insert Jake Diebler, 37, the youngest coach in the wacky, 18-team Big Ten and the leader of what he hopes is a revival of Ohio State basketball and maybe some hearts and souls along the way.

“The way he connects with coaches and players is inspiring,” Johnson told CBS Sports at last week’s Big Ten Media Day. “You want to be around it. You gravitate toward that. That’s why I came back.”

All the cliches are appropriate. Diebler was almost born and bred to be a basketball coach. Diebler was a heckuva hooper in high school and at Valparaiso, but he was a bit outshined by his brother, Jon, who is the all-time leading scorer in Ohio High School basketball history and went on to drain a billion 3-pointers for Ohio State from 2008-11. Diebler’s father, Keith, was a longtime high school basketball coach in Ohio. Oh, and volleyball. Diebler remembers early memories of strolling into the gym at 5 a.m. with his dad, whom he describes as a “coaching junkie.” That makes Diebler an easy addition to the Big Ten coaches fraternity where coach’s kids like Northwestern’s Chris Collins and UCLA’s Mick Cronin now stalk the sidelines.

Tom Izzo –– 32 years his senior –– and the rest of the Big Ten coaches have accepted Diebler into the crew, even if Diebler’s tight fade blended perfectly with a little to play with on top doesn’t feature many gray hairs (yet). He’s been warned what could happen to his hair after a long season in the grueling Big Ten with a dreaded portal window waiting on the other side.

Future hairline battles are an easy price to pay for one’s dream job.

Changes coming to Ohio State

Right now, Diebler’s tank is always revving. He’s high energy. Even his star guards like Johnson and Bruce Thornton aren’t sure where he gets it from. Diebler is usually rocking little-to-no sleep after he and his wife, Jordyn, welcomed their fourth child, Julien, in early July.

You’d never know it, though.

Ohio State is practicing fast because it wants to play fast. Many coaches love to parrot how excited they are to play up-tempo in their introductory press conferences, but Diebler has raw data to back it up. After Chris Holtmann was fired last February, Diebler stepped in as the interim coach and led Ohio State to an 8-3 record, emphasized by a win over No. 2 Purdue. Ohio State played just five games all year with 73 or more possessions. Diebler was the acting head coach for all of them. That’s no coincidence.

“We had this proof of concept last year,” Diebler said. “That made me think that this can really work. Out of respect for this league and the coaches, I don’t want to go against a set defense over and over again. The coaching and scouting in this league is the best in the country. For us, if we can create mismatches or advantages with our pace, it’s going to allow us to be more successful offensively.”

Consider how some of college basketball’s best programs embody the personality of their head coach. Houston plays with an edge because Kelvin Sampson has an edge. Marquette‘s ball pressure is relentless, partially because its own head coach, Shaka Smart, is doing defensive slides in front of the bench, too. 

Something similar could be coming to Ohio State, maybe without the sideline defensive closeouts.

“The style that we want to play at simulates who Jake is,” Walker explains. “Offensively and defensively, we want to play with more pace and more urgency.”

That clear vision of the future helped Diebler simplify almost everything after the interim tag was stripped off on March 17 and Ohio State’s new brass tabbed him to be the head coach. Diebler made a bold decision to move in a different direction with Ohio State’s other assistant coaches. Diebler is the only coach left from Chris Holtmann’s previous staff.

“We were understaffed during the busiest time of college basketball,” Diebler says.

While Diebler waited for the hiring red tape to clear some of his new assistant coaches, he took matters into his own hands in the portal. To play fast, you need bigs who can run. When Duke‘s Sean Stewart hit the transfer portal, Diebler raced to the phone. Diebler was the primary recruiter for Stewart when he was a five-star, McDonald’s All-American out of ballyhooed Montverde Academy. 

Ohio State finished second to Duke in the first go-round. Diebler wasn’t going to miss on Stewart again.

“Sometimes, there’s value to finishing second or third in recruiting and I think it helped us in that case,” Diebler said. “Moving forward, teams are understanding that you want to run recruiting races all the way through just because you never know in the future.”

Maybe Ohio State’s biggest priority this offseason, outside of retaining Thornton, was finding a big man who could stretch the floor. Ohio State’s centers combined for 11 treys in the last two years combined. Six of the top-10 offenses in the sport last year had 5-men who could shred from downtown, and Diebler wanted to get in on the fun. Aaron Bradshaw, another former five-star recruit who lost his way at Kentucky, fit the bill perfectly. 

But the portal cycle wasn’t filled without its fair share of hiccups. Diebler envisioned a frontcourt featuring Stewart, Bradshaw and Felix Okpara. Ohio State’s rim defense with Okpara on the floor was outstanding, and Diebler figured he could split 80 frontcourt minutes up just fine amongst that trio. Okpara originally planned to stay at Ohio State, but he changed his mind, hit the portal and landed at Tennessee. Diebler also was the primary recruiter for Roddy Gayle Jr. who has all the tools to be an All-Big Ten player one day. That can still happen. It just might be at rival Michigan who landed Gayle less than three weeks after he hit the portal.

“I think the back and forth was challenging,” Diebler said. “We were planning a certain way for the roster, but it’s worked out well for everybody. I have no ill will toward anybody. It was hard for me because of the personal relationships, but it created room for us to add some really good pieces. I told Roddy that I loved him, I wished him nothing but the best, except when we play him. He laughed.”

Ohio State will host Michigan and Gayle on Feb. 16. Buckle up.

Faith charts the path for Diebler

Faith is a pillar of the man Diebler has become.

“The best form of ministry that I can do is just be myself,” Diebler said matter-of-factly.

Minutes before Ohio State’s plane jetted for Chicago, Diebler quietly prayed for protection. That wasn’t a one-off, according to Johnson. Prayers have become a regular occurrence before Ohio State’s practices and team meals. Some of Ohio State’s players came to church with Diebler and his family. Now, they go on their own. Walker noted that Diebler’s faith was an olive branch they could connect on. It’s partially why Walker made the tough decision to leave Grand Canyon for Ohio State.

“We had a player-initiated and player-led Bible study,” Diebler said. “Not the whole team but it was a handful of guys. They don’t realize it, but for me, that was one of the coolest things that’s happened to me since I’ve been here. It’s creating a light and creating a space for that to grow organically.”

A revival of sorts has started to permeate across Ohio State’s campus. At least 60 people, per The Lantern, were baptized in late August at an on-campus ceremony led by Ohio State football stars TreVeyon Henderson, J.T. Tuimoloau, Emeka Egbuka and former OSU football wideout Kamryn Babb.

“You’re seeing some real growth,” Diebler said. “I think it’s really special what’s going on here.”

Diebler reiterates that he isn’t forcing his faith on anybody. He just wants his players to see him for who he is as a person, as a dad and a husband. 

“When his faith is above like that and he’s believing, it puts it in the team,” Johnson said. “We believe too. Not just because of what he’s saying but his enthusiasm, the joy that he brings to us and just how he lives. He has joy and it’s coming from the Lord and I’m appreciative of that.”

Can Ohio State win big with a first-time head coach?

Fairly or not, there have been plenty of skeptics about Ohio State’s brazen decision to make Diebler, a man with no head coaching experience outside of that 11-game sample size last season, the permanent head coach when there were far more proven options like Greg McDermott or Sean Miller who opted to stay at Creighton and Xavier, respectively. Oh, and Dusty May, the coach who took Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023 and had numerous Big Ten ties dating back to his days as a manager at Indiana. May was a candidate at Ohio State, but Diebler was the choice and May picked Michigan less than a week later.

They will be compared. That’s the nature of the business. It’s impossible to ignore, so Ohio State’s inner circle is running toward it.

“I love challenges,” Walker said. “Why not? Drives me, fuels me. Let’s make this happen with a first-time coach. Let’s show everybody what we are and what we can be and I can help him do that. How can I get you there? That’s a good job of an assistant coach. Some people might be afraid of that but I love it.”

Ohio State certainly has the pieces to make some noise in a Big Ten that’s as flat and wide open as anyone can remember, even the most veteran beat writers. Thornton heads into his junior season looking to become a flat-out star, and Ohio State has armed him with plenty of reinforcements. Bradshaw gives Thornton a pick-and-pop big man that he just hasn’t had. Thornton will share the backcourt with Johnson (106 career games) and San Diego State transfer Micah Parrish (130 career games). 

If Thornton has the season Diebler envisions, Ohio State may have the best guard in the league. Even better than Purdue’s Braden Smith, the unanimous Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year, who Thornton outplayed in their head-to-head matchup last year.

“He’s a guy that isn’t getting enough credit,” Diebler said. “I think he’s going to start getting that this year which he deserves and has worked so hard for. People are going to finally see how special he is.”

Everyone in Ohio State country is trying to avoid that midseason swoon that felled the last two Buckeye squads. Maybe it’s an older, better version of Thornton. Maybe it’s veterans like Johnson and Parrish. Maybe it’s a Kel’el Ware-like bounce-back season for Bradshaw. Maybe a new cast of assistant coaches can help keep this train on the tracks.

No one would be here without Diebler. He’s the connecting link. All of this is a bet on the youngest coach in the Big Ten being just a little bit different.

“I believed in his values,” Walker says. “I believed in who he is as a person. When you get these opportunities to do something special, they’re rare. That’s the next step here with Jake.”