Ohio State introduces Jake Diebler as men’s basketball coach

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Before the Ohio State men’s basketball team begins its NIT journey, the Buckeyes got some official business done in the coaching department.

Outgoing athletic director Gene Smith and incoming athletic director Ross Bjork introduced Jake Diebler as the 15th head coach in program history in a news conference at the Schottenstein Center on Monday afternoon. Diebler was promoted from interim coach Sunday.

“Growing up, you have dreams and you never fully get to predict if or when those dreams will come true,” Diebler said in his opening remarks.

Diebler signed a five-year contract and is the first Ohio native to coach the men’s basketball team in 35 years after taking over for Chris Holtmann, who was fired on Feb. 14. “He just fits with where we are with this program right now,” said Bjork. “He is over prepared because he has been dreaming about this for a long time.”

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Family and faith were at the heart of Diebler’s message to the media and the crowd that included former Ohio State basketball stars.

“This is a dream and it wouldn’t be possible without my wife, Jordan, my beautiful babies James, Jessa and Jackson,” Diebler said. “It wouldn’t be possible without my family. My mom and dad. My brothers.”

Hiring from within didn’t come without a thorough search and interview process, Bjork said. The decision comes as the college basketball transfer window opened on Monday and other schools were looking to fill head coaching vacancies, including Michigan.

“Jake’s the real deal. I mean, he’s got the X-Factor that everybody’s talked about. I mean, you see his charisma. You see the game plan that he has for the program,” Bjork said. “And so as everything crystallized, again, we just sort of kept pointing right to him when we compare him to our profile, compare him to other candidates. You know, he was really standing right in front of us. So just an exciting day for Buckeye basketball.”

In the first game under Diebler, the Buckeyes upset No. 2 Purdue at Value City Arena and followed that up by winning five of their last six regular-season games. The late momentum carried as Ohio State beat Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten tournament before losing Friday to Illinois in a quarterfinal.

Ohio State was selected as a No. 2 seed for the National Invitation Tournament and will play Cornell at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Value City Arena in the first round. This is the first time since 2016 the Buckeyes are playing in the NIT, a tournament they won in 2008.

To download the bracket, follow this link.

The bracket for the NCAA men’s tournament can be downloaded by following this link.

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