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“Pace and Poise”: Jake Diebler preparing his Buckeyes to speed things up in year one
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Ohio State was one of the slowest power-conference teams over the past seven seasons.
First-year head coach Jake Diebler doesn’t want his first Ohio State team to operate a reckless, “run and gun” offense that sacrifices composure and execution for the sole purpose of moving fast. He does, however, want his Buckeyes to move at a pace much faster than fans are accustomed to seeing out over the past several years.
“We just have to play with pace and poise,” Diebler told Land-Grant Holy Land last week. “That’s kind of what we say around here — play with pace and poise. You can’t be all pace, no poise.”
Ohio State played with plenty of poise under Diebler last season once he was promoted to interim head coach — and ultimately the full-time head coach — of the program he grew up admiring as a northwest Ohio kid. The Buckeyes went 8-3 under Diebler last season after playing to a 14-11 record in Chris Holtmann’s seventh season until the latter was fired in mid-February.
Ohio State routinely clocked in outside of the top 200 in adjusted tempo under Holtmann. Despite yearly conversations about playing with pace that popped up in the pre-season, it just never happened under Holtmann — who is now the head coach at DePaul.
Here are Ohio State’s ranks in adjusted tempo over the past seven seasons, out of all Division-I teams. Adjusted tempo is a statistic used by statistician Ken Pomeroy to measure a team’s pace, and is the average number of possessions a team has per 40 minutes.
2017-18: 238 out of 351
2018-19: 274 out of 353
2019-20: 280 out of 353
2020-21: 251 out of 357
2021-22: 289 out of 358
2022-23: 247 out of 363
2023-24: 251 out of 362
If things go to plan this year for Diebler, that trend is going to stop with his first Ohio State team.
“Call it respect to the coaches in the Big Ten, but I just don’t really want to go up against a set defense over and over and over again,” Diebler said. “I think it makes it very challenging. So our intent with the pace that we’re playing at is to get the defense on their heels as quickly as possible. If we can create an advantage early in the (shot) clock, we want to take that advantage. If we can create a mismatch early in the (shot) clock with our pace, we want to maintain that mismatch.”
Diebler was tasked with recruiting reinforcements out of the transfer portal this spring following the departures of Scotty Middleton, Roddy Gayle, Felix Okpara, and Bowen Hardman. At the same time, Diebler had to make calls and fill out his own coaching staff, leaving much of the transfer portal search up to him.
One goal for Diebler was to add more athleticism and speed to the roster — players who are capable of not just playing multiple positions, but also to play at the speed that he envisions this team playing at.
To that end, he added:
In an ideal world, Diebler sees his first team finding success because his lead guards, Johnson and Bruce Thornton, push the pace and keep opponents on their heels. So far Diebler — who coached Johnson during his first stint at Ohio State — likes the chemistry that he is seeing between his two guards.
“You see a natural chemistry and it’s fun to watch both guys be able to play off each other, playmaker for each other,” Diebler said.
He went on: “We certainly have some talented pieces, starting with those two. But those guys really want to win, and they want to win for Ohio State. And I think that’s so great, it sets a great tone for our entire team. But whether it’s Bruce creating for Meechie, or Meechie creating for Bruce, certainly both guys are two-way players, which is important, two-way players at the guard position. So I’ve been impressed with just the natural chemistry that has formed really early on — started this summer and is continuing to develop as we get into fall practice.”
And although Johnson and Thornton have not played on the same team before, that doesn’t mean the two weren’t previously acquainted. During the summer of 2021, Johnson was Thornton’s host on an official visit to Columbus.
Now things have come full circle for the fifth-year senior from Cleveland and the junior guard from just north of Atlanta. Johnson returned to Ohio State to finish his career on a high note and get the Buckeyes back into the NCAA Tournament. Thornton is looking to put the last two seasons of missing the tournament behind him and help carry his team on a deep March run with the head coach who recruited him to Ohio State four years ago.
And in the words of the great Ricky Bobby, they want to go fast.
Continue reading...
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Ohio State was one of the slowest power-conference teams over the past seven seasons.
First-year head coach Jake Diebler doesn’t want his first Ohio State team to operate a reckless, “run and gun” offense that sacrifices composure and execution for the sole purpose of moving fast. He does, however, want his Buckeyes to move at a pace much faster than fans are accustomed to seeing out over the past several years.
“We just have to play with pace and poise,” Diebler told Land-Grant Holy Land last week. “That’s kind of what we say around here — play with pace and poise. You can’t be all pace, no poise.”
Ohio State played with plenty of poise under Diebler last season once he was promoted to interim head coach — and ultimately the full-time head coach — of the program he grew up admiring as a northwest Ohio kid. The Buckeyes went 8-3 under Diebler last season after playing to a 14-11 record in Chris Holtmann’s seventh season until the latter was fired in mid-February.
Ohio State routinely clocked in outside of the top 200 in adjusted tempo under Holtmann. Despite yearly conversations about playing with pace that popped up in the pre-season, it just never happened under Holtmann — who is now the head coach at DePaul.
Here are Ohio State’s ranks in adjusted tempo over the past seven seasons, out of all Division-I teams. Adjusted tempo is a statistic used by statistician Ken Pomeroy to measure a team’s pace, and is the average number of possessions a team has per 40 minutes.
2017-18: 238 out of 351
2018-19: 274 out of 353
2019-20: 280 out of 353
2020-21: 251 out of 357
2021-22: 289 out of 358
2022-23: 247 out of 363
2023-24: 251 out of 362
If things go to plan this year for Diebler, that trend is going to stop with his first Ohio State team.
“Call it respect to the coaches in the Big Ten, but I just don’t really want to go up against a set defense over and over and over again,” Diebler said. “I think it makes it very challenging. So our intent with the pace that we’re playing at is to get the defense on their heels as quickly as possible. If we can create an advantage early in the (shot) clock, we want to take that advantage. If we can create a mismatch early in the (shot) clock with our pace, we want to maintain that mismatch.”
Let's make it official.
Welcome Hme @MeechieJohnson0
Meechie Johnson Jr. has officially been added to our 2024-25 roster.#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/xLQfioVMTn
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) April 9, 2024
Diebler was tasked with recruiting reinforcements out of the transfer portal this spring following the departures of Scotty Middleton, Roddy Gayle, Felix Okpara, and Bowen Hardman. At the same time, Diebler had to make calls and fill out his own coaching staff, leaving much of the transfer portal search up to him.
One goal for Diebler was to add more athleticism and speed to the roster — players who are capable of not just playing multiple positions, but also to play at the speed that he envisions this team playing at.
To that end, he added:
- Micah Parrish, a lanky, left-handed guard who played at San Diego State the past two seasons.
- Aaron Bradshaw, a lean, seven-foot-tall center from Kentucky who was a five-star recruit in the 2023 class
- Sean Stewart, a former five-star forward in the 2023 class that set the vertical jump record at Duke, previously held by Zion Williamson
- Ques Glover, a quick, twitchy 6-foot tall guard who previously played at Florida and Samford
- Meechie Johnson, an All-SEC guard at South Carolina last season who played his first two years at Ohio State
In an ideal world, Diebler sees his first team finding success because his lead guards, Johnson and Bruce Thornton, push the pace and keep opponents on their heels. So far Diebler — who coached Johnson during his first stint at Ohio State — likes the chemistry that he is seeing between his two guards.
“You see a natural chemistry and it’s fun to watch both guys be able to play off each other, playmaker for each other,” Diebler said.
He went on: “We certainly have some talented pieces, starting with those two. But those guys really want to win, and they want to win for Ohio State. And I think that’s so great, it sets a great tone for our entire team. But whether it’s Bruce creating for Meechie, or Meechie creating for Bruce, certainly both guys are two-way players, which is important, two-way players at the guard position. So I’ve been impressed with just the natural chemistry that has formed really early on — started this summer and is continuing to develop as we get into fall practice.”
And although Johnson and Thornton have not played on the same team before, that doesn’t mean the two weren’t previously acquainted. During the summer of 2021, Johnson was Thornton’s host on an official visit to Columbus.
Now things have come full circle for the fifth-year senior from Cleveland and the junior guard from just north of Atlanta. Johnson returned to Ohio State to finish his career on a high note and get the Buckeyes back into the NCAA Tournament. Thornton is looking to put the last two seasons of missing the tournament behind him and help carry his team on a deep March run with the head coach who recruited him to Ohio State four years ago.
And in the words of the great Ricky Bobby, they want to go fast.
Continue reading...