Report: Ohio State to elevate Jake Diebler to head coach
After guiding Ohio State to a 6-2 record when he took over the program in February, interim head coach Jake Diebler is expected to be named the Buckeyes’ head coach, per an ESPN report Saturday night. After Chris Holtmann was fired on Valentine’s Day following a tough start in Big Ten conference play, all Diebler did in his debut was steer Ohio State to a 73-69 upset of then-No. 2 Purdue. The Buckeyes reeled off five straight wins under
Diebler, reaching the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals before losing to Illinois 77-74 on Friday night. ESPN currently has projects Ohio State to narrowly be on the outside of the NCAA Tournament’s 68-team field, which will be revealed Sunday. The Buckeyes haven’t advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament since 2013, when they reached the Elite Eight. Diebler’s first stint at Ohio State was on head coach Thad Matta’s staff from 2014-16 as the video coordinator. Following three seasons as an assistant under head coach Bryce Drew at Vanderbilt, Diebler rejoined the Buckeyes’ staff under Holtmann in 2019.
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Ohio State to hire Jake Diebler: Buckeyes expected to reach agreement with interim coach after he went 6-2
Diebler took over Ohio State after Chris Holtmann was fired last month
Ohio State is expected to soon reach an agreement with Jake Diebler and then announce that the interim coach who replaced Chris Holtmann last month will be its next full-time men’s basketball coach, a source confirmed to CBS Sports on Saturday.
The Columbus Dispatch earlier reported the news.
Diebler, 37, is Valparaiso graduate who has worked at Ohio State since 2019. When Holtmann was fired last month, Diebler was elevated on an interim basis. He then led the Buckeyes to a 6-2 record featuring victories over Purdue and Nebraska while also doing enough to convince his bosses he’s worthy of running one of the 20 best programs in the sport without any previous head-coaching experience.
Prior to moving to Ohio State, Diebler was an assistant for Bryce Drew at Vanderbilt, where he was the lead recruiter on 5-star prospect Darius Garland. Put another way, that’s when Diebler established himself as a talented recruiter, and these past eight games are when he established himself as a gifted coach. That combination, along with other things, are what provided Ohio State’s administration with confidence to make a move that seemed unlikely when Holtmann was fired on Valentine’s Day.
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