Connor Lemons
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Column: Take a bow, Jake Diebler
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports
A proud Ohio kid turned proud Ohio State coach took the Buckeyes on a thrilling, memorable run to end the season.
Sitting in the visitor’s locker room at the Target Center, not even 30 minutes after bowing out of the Big Ten Tournament following a 77-74 loss to No. seed 2 Illinois in the quarterfinal, a red-eyed Jake Diebler took questions about his future with the Ohio State men’s basketball program: the program that he has now worked at for eight seasons under four different titles — video coordinator, assistant coach, associate head coach, and now interim head coach; the program his younger brother, Jon, established himself as the greatest three-pointer the school has ever seen; the program he grew up having ultimate reverence for as a northwest-Ohio native and graduate of Upper Sandusky High School.
“There will be a time and place to think through that. Right now, there’s still a job to be done and my focus is on that.” Diebler said. “When Gene (Smith) asked me to do this… I just want to serve these guys the best that I possibly can, until the absolute last second of this year. And I want to serve this program. I love this program.
“This program means so much to me and my family, and I want to serve this program with everything I have. As far as kind of what’s next, I don’t think there’s been an appropriate time to fully think through that because the focus has been on the here and now. So, there will be a time for that. Sorry if that’s not now.”
When former Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann was fired on Feb. 14, Diebler was tasked with executing an emergency crash landing. The Buckeyes were 4-10 in Big Ten play and were jostling with Michigan on a game-by-game basis to not be in last place in the conference standings. Purdue was coming to town in four days; a daunting trip to Michigan State was on the schedule for one week later.
No one expected much from Diebler on Valentine’s Day, so saying “he exceeded expectations” would not do justice to the job he and the Ohio State coaching staff did over the final five weeks of the season. Diebler, Jack Owens, Mike Netti, Brandon Bailey, Terence Dials, Nick Kellogg, and Quadrian Banks galvanized a group of young men when it would have been so much easier to just go through the motions until the season ended. Somehow, they did the opposite.
Sitting in 13th-place in the Big Ten, how do you get a full team of 18 to 23-year-olds to fully buy in? How do you persuade the entire team that even though nobody believes in you — including your own fans — there’s still a reason to fight? Somehow, Diebler didn’t only get Ohio State to keep playing, he got them to take it up to another level.
The Buckeyes turned up the defensive intensity, holding Michigan State, Nebraska, Michigan, and Rutgers to an average of 59.5 points per game — all Ohio State wins. The Buckeyes' defensive efficiency ranking was worse than 100th in the country when Diebler took over. Following the loss to Illinois, Ohio State now sits at No. 65 nationally, allowing 100.2 points per 100 possessions — which is seventh in the Big Ten.
He got buy-in on the defensive end by holding players’ feet to the flames on the little things that win games. It didn’t matter if it was Bruce Thornton, Bowen Hardman, or anyone in between — if you don’t box out, you’re sitting on the bench. If you don’t immediately get back in transition, you’re sitting on the bench. With the thought of getting pulled (even for just a minute or two) lingering in the backs of their minds, the Buckeyes created more consistent habits — habits that just weren’t sticking with Holtmann.
Diebler also decided immediately that he wanted the Buckeyes to move more quickly. Ohio State has annually been in the bottom third of all college basketball teams in terms of tempo. The interim head coach decided that was going to change.
“We’re playing to win,” Diebler said after an 84-61 shellacking of Michigan on March 3. “We need to be aggressive. We need to play with pace. We need to strike early.”
The Buckeyes did just that, increasing their tempo, pushing the ball up the floor in transition, and trying to catch their opponents sleeping. After every missed shot by the opposition, you could see Diebler waving his right arm in a windmill motion, directing the offense to speed it up like a conductor commanding an orchestra.
These habits led to wins. First, the upset of No. 2 Purdue. With just four days to prepare for the National Player of the Year and reigning Big Ten Champions, Diebler guided Ohio State to its biggest home win in years. He did it while also managing the emotions of 15 young men — and staff — who were blindsided by the firing of Holtmann just a few days earlier. After the win, Thornton mentioned how Diebler was focused on helping them clear their minds in the days leading up to the Purdue game, because, “We can’t win the basketball game if our minds are focused on something else.”
Then, they knocked off Michigan State at Breslin for the first time since 2012. When Dale Bonner buried the game-winner with under one second remaining, Diebler fell to the floor before realizing that there was still time on the clock and that he needed to get his celebrating team off the court before they received a bench technical. It was an emotional win for the Buckeyes after trailing by double-digits at halftime. Even being down in the final minutes, Diebler said that’s exactly where he hoped they would be at the end — within a few points with a chance to win on the road. The win also snapped a program-record 17 consecutive road losses.
The Buckeyes then finished the regular season by winning three in a row, including yet another road win, this time over Rutgers at the RAC by 22 points. Jokes about making the NCAA Tournament quickly turned into something tangible. There was an arbitrary line drawn by ball-knowers everywhere — Ohio State could actually make the NCAA Tournament with two or three wins in the Big Ten Tournament. The Buckeyes did not need to win it all, although they certainly wanted to.
After out-pacing Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, Ohio State fell in the final 70 seconds to Illinois in a game that — if that had won — may have completed the miraculous turnaround and put them in the NCAA Tournament. Evan Mahaffey and Felix Okpara both fouled out. Devin Royal and Battle were both playing with four fouls. Meanwhile, Dain Dainja and Terrence Shannon were drawing fouls left and right, leaving Diebler with few options or answers. The gas ran out. The bubble popped. The hourglass had flipped, and all of the sand had hit the bottom.
After (kind of) answering the question about his future, Diebler was asked how he would handle the next two days. Ohio State will likely get an invitation to the NIT, and it sounds like they will accept if offered. But that technically is not a guarantee, so there won’t be practice this weekend. Nobody knows if there’s another game coming up, who the next coach is, or which players may be transferring away in the coming days. Some members of the team may never play another game or go through another practice donning scarlet and gray.
“Just keep serving these guys the best I can,” Diebler said. “We’ve earned the right to play in the postseason. Considering where we were to where we are now, I just think that’s such a great thing. And we may have fallen a little short, we’ll see. Certainly, we’ve worked our way onto the bubble. But, I think [the] postseason is absolutely there for us in some way. And we’ve got a lot of guys who will embrace that.”
He went on, when asked specifically about the NIT, “I’ve had a lot of fun with this group. These guys are a joy to coach, and I think if we do play, there’s a championship to be won. And I know the competitive spirit of this group. So I would anticipate if that’s the case that we’ll be ready to go.”
NCAA Tournament or no NCAA Tournament, NIT or no NIT, head coach, assistant coach, or no coach at all. Regardless of how the next few days shape up, go ahead and take a bow, Jake Diebler.
Maybe Ross Bjork will remove the interim tag and make Diebler the permanent head coach. Maybe he won’t. But the six wins he and staff earned over the past five weeks showed all of America the type of person and coach that the elder Diebler is, and will continue to be, wherever his next stop is.
It may have only been six wins, but they were six wins that Buckeye Nation will never forget.
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
Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports
A proud Ohio kid turned proud Ohio State coach took the Buckeyes on a thrilling, memorable run to end the season.
Sitting in the visitor’s locker room at the Target Center, not even 30 minutes after bowing out of the Big Ten Tournament following a 77-74 loss to No. seed 2 Illinois in the quarterfinal, a red-eyed Jake Diebler took questions about his future with the Ohio State men’s basketball program: the program that he has now worked at for eight seasons under four different titles — video coordinator, assistant coach, associate head coach, and now interim head coach; the program his younger brother, Jon, established himself as the greatest three-pointer the school has ever seen; the program he grew up having ultimate reverence for as a northwest-Ohio native and graduate of Upper Sandusky High School.
“There will be a time and place to think through that. Right now, there’s still a job to be done and my focus is on that.” Diebler said. “When Gene (Smith) asked me to do this… I just want to serve these guys the best that I possibly can, until the absolute last second of this year. And I want to serve this program. I love this program.
“This program means so much to me and my family, and I want to serve this program with everything I have. As far as kind of what’s next, I don’t think there’s been an appropriate time to fully think through that because the focus has been on the here and now. So, there will be a time for that. Sorry if that’s not now.”
When former Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann was fired on Feb. 14, Diebler was tasked with executing an emergency crash landing. The Buckeyes were 4-10 in Big Ten play and were jostling with Michigan on a game-by-game basis to not be in last place in the conference standings. Purdue was coming to town in four days; a daunting trip to Michigan State was on the schedule for one week later.
No one expected much from Diebler on Valentine’s Day, so saying “he exceeded expectations” would not do justice to the job he and the Ohio State coaching staff did over the final five weeks of the season. Diebler, Jack Owens, Mike Netti, Brandon Bailey, Terence Dials, Nick Kellogg, and Quadrian Banks galvanized a group of young men when it would have been so much easier to just go through the motions until the season ended. Somehow, they did the opposite.
Sitting in 13th-place in the Big Ten, how do you get a full team of 18 to 23-year-olds to fully buy in? How do you persuade the entire team that even though nobody believes in you — including your own fans — there’s still a reason to fight? Somehow, Diebler didn’t only get Ohio State to keep playing, he got them to take it up to another level.
The Buckeyes turned up the defensive intensity, holding Michigan State, Nebraska, Michigan, and Rutgers to an average of 59.5 points per game — all Ohio State wins. The Buckeyes' defensive efficiency ranking was worse than 100th in the country when Diebler took over. Following the loss to Illinois, Ohio State now sits at No. 65 nationally, allowing 100.2 points per 100 possessions — which is seventh in the Big Ten.
He got buy-in on the defensive end by holding players’ feet to the flames on the little things that win games. It didn’t matter if it was Bruce Thornton, Bowen Hardman, or anyone in between — if you don’t box out, you’re sitting on the bench. If you don’t immediately get back in transition, you’re sitting on the bench. With the thought of getting pulled (even for just a minute or two) lingering in the backs of their minds, the Buckeyes created more consistent habits — habits that just weren’t sticking with Holtmann.
Diebler also decided immediately that he wanted the Buckeyes to move more quickly. Ohio State has annually been in the bottom third of all college basketball teams in terms of tempo. The interim head coach decided that was going to change.
“We’re playing to win,” Diebler said after an 84-61 shellacking of Michigan on March 3. “We need to be aggressive. We need to play with pace. We need to strike early.”
The Buckeyes did just that, increasing their tempo, pushing the ball up the floor in transition, and trying to catch their opponents sleeping. After every missed shot by the opposition, you could see Diebler waving his right arm in a windmill motion, directing the offense to speed it up like a conductor commanding an orchestra.
These habits led to wins. First, the upset of No. 2 Purdue. With just four days to prepare for the National Player of the Year and reigning Big Ten Champions, Diebler guided Ohio State to its biggest home win in years. He did it while also managing the emotions of 15 young men — and staff — who were blindsided by the firing of Holtmann just a few days earlier. After the win, Thornton mentioned how Diebler was focused on helping them clear their minds in the days leading up to the Purdue game, because, “We can’t win the basketball game if our minds are focused on something else.”
DALE BONNER WINS IT FOR @OhioStateHoops
(via @CBSSports)
pic.twitter.com/ZRr6qZznNw
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) February 25, 2024
Then, they knocked off Michigan State at Breslin for the first time since 2012. When Dale Bonner buried the game-winner with under one second remaining, Diebler fell to the floor before realizing that there was still time on the clock and that he needed to get his celebrating team off the court before they received a bench technical. It was an emotional win for the Buckeyes after trailing by double-digits at halftime. Even being down in the final minutes, Diebler said that’s exactly where he hoped they would be at the end — within a few points with a chance to win on the road. The win also snapped a program-record 17 consecutive road losses.
The Buckeyes then finished the regular season by winning three in a row, including yet another road win, this time over Rutgers at the RAC by 22 points. Jokes about making the NCAA Tournament quickly turned into something tangible. There was an arbitrary line drawn by ball-knowers everywhere — Ohio State could actually make the NCAA Tournament with two or three wins in the Big Ten Tournament. The Buckeyes did not need to win it all, although they certainly wanted to.
After out-pacing Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, Ohio State fell in the final 70 seconds to Illinois in a game that — if that had won — may have completed the miraculous turnaround and put them in the NCAA Tournament. Evan Mahaffey and Felix Okpara both fouled out. Devin Royal and Battle were both playing with four fouls. Meanwhile, Dain Dainja and Terrence Shannon were drawing fouls left and right, leaving Diebler with few options or answers. The gas ran out. The bubble popped. The hourglass had flipped, and all of the sand had hit the bottom.
After (kind of) answering the question about his future, Diebler was asked how he would handle the next two days. Ohio State will likely get an invitation to the NIT, and it sounds like they will accept if offered. But that technically is not a guarantee, so there won’t be practice this weekend. Nobody knows if there’s another game coming up, who the next coach is, or which players may be transferring away in the coming days. Some members of the team may never play another game or go through another practice donning scarlet and gray.
“Just keep serving these guys the best I can,” Diebler said. “We’ve earned the right to play in the postseason. Considering where we were to where we are now, I just think that’s such a great thing. And we may have fallen a little short, we’ll see. Certainly, we’ve worked our way onto the bubble. But, I think [the] postseason is absolutely there for us in some way. And we’ve got a lot of guys who will embrace that.”
He went on, when asked specifically about the NIT, “I’ve had a lot of fun with this group. These guys are a joy to coach, and I think if we do play, there’s a championship to be won. And I know the competitive spirit of this group. So I would anticipate if that’s the case that we’ll be ready to go.”
NCAA Tournament or no NCAA Tournament, NIT or no NIT, head coach, assistant coach, or no coach at all. Regardless of how the next few days shape up, go ahead and take a bow, Jake Diebler.
Maybe Ross Bjork will remove the interim tag and make Diebler the permanent head coach. Maybe he won’t. But the six wins he and staff earned over the past five weeks showed all of America the type of person and coach that the elder Diebler is, and will continue to be, wherever his next stop is.
It may have only been six wins, but they were six wins that Buckeye Nation will never forget.
Continue reading...