Jake Diebler continues to add to his staff of assistant coaches.
Ohio State announced the hiring of Baylor director of basketball operations Luke Simons as an assistant coach on Thursday.
Help us welcome the newest member of Buckeye Nation, Luke Simons@JakeDiebler has announced the hiring of assistant coach Luke Simons. Simons joins the program with 8 years of collegiate experience and another 7 of international experience.
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) April 11, 2024
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“I’m excited to welcome Luke as he’s going to be a great addition to our staff,” Diebler said in a statement. “He has the ability to connect with players at every level and his versatility is really important. He’s been on staff at the collegiate level, and he has international coaching experience as well. Those experiences are going to be valuable for our program as we move forward.”
Simons joins Joel Justus, Jamall Walker and Dave Dickerson on what will be a brand new staff of assistant coaches for the 2024-25 season. Ohio State can still add one more assistant coach.
Simons and Diebler worked together at Vanderbilt for three seasons, where both helped head coach Bryce Drew to a 19-16 overall record and an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament in 2017.
His other stops include serving as a director of basketball operations at College of Charleston from 2019-2021 and at Boston College for one year before leaving for the same position at Baylor. He was the director of scouting at Vanderbilt from 2016-19 and at Valparaiso for one year before that.
Before his college coaching days, Simons served as an international team director for Athletes in Action, a religious organization created to help athletes develop "physically, mentally and spiritually." He also served as Director of Operations for Team USA at the last three World University Games, which resulted in two gold medals and one silver medal, and was an assistant coach for the Mongolian national team from 2012-15.
Correction: This story previously stated that Simons would round out Ohio State’s 2024-25 coaching staff, but a rule change last year allows college basketball teams to hire five assistant coaches.
