Jake Diebler's success as a recruiter was one of his best qualities as an assistant coach and he was likely hoping to find the same type of assistant now that he is a head coach.
It seems as though Diebler did just that on Monday.
Ohio State hired Joel Justus as an associate head coach, giving Diebler his second assistant on his new-look staff, along with Dave Dickerson.
Justus has plenty of experience at the collegiate level, both as a player and an assistant. After playing four years at UNC Wilmington from 2000-2004, he spent four years as an assistant coach at Elon before becoming a high school coach for six years. Justus then joined John Calipari's staff at Kentucky in 2014, where he was the Wildcats' director of analytics in his first season and then was a special assistant to the head coach in 2015 before being promoted to his on-court role in 2016.
As an assistant coach at Kentucky, Justus recruited players such as Bam Adebayo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Immanuel Quickley, Keldon Johnson, Johnny Juzang and Brandon Boston Jr., among others. All of them were five-star prospects and Gilgeous-Alexander and Adebayo are now two of the best players at their respective positions in the NBA; the former is currently an MVP candidate leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to one of their best seasons ever.
The fact that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a fan of Joel Justus being named Ohio States associate head coach under Jake Diebler seems like a good thing. pic.twitter.com/lBtA5AY17M
— Josh Poloha (@JorshP) April 8, 2024
During his seven years in Lexington from 2014-21, Justus helped lead Kentucky to a 187-56 record, including one Final Four, three Elite Eights and four Sweet 16s.
He was named to ESPN's 40 Under 40 as well as The Athletic's 40 Under 40 in 2020 because of his success at Kentucky, especially on the recruiting trail.
ESPN:
When he first joined Kentucky's staff for the 2014-15 season, he was an analytics coach who put together detailed profiles of each player on the roster. Now, he's one of the nation's top assistant coaches and a rumored candidate for multiple jobs that could open in the coming year or two. -- Myron Medcalf
The Athletic:
In 2014, John Calipari hired Justus to be Kentucky’s director of analytics. That was a big leap from Justus’ previous job as the coach at Davidson Day High School in North Carolina, but he has continued to elevate. The following year Justus became special assistant to the head coach, and over the past four seasons he has worked as a fulltime assistant. With the summertime departure of Kentucky’s top assistant, Kenny Payne, for the New York Knicks, Justus will have an expanded role for the Wildcats this season. The increased responsibilities and exposure should put him in line to become a college head coach in the near future.
In 2021-22, he made the move to Arizona State as an assistant coach for Bobby Hurley. After just one season, he then became an assistant coach at NC State, where he spent the last two seasons. After proving to be a top-notch recruiter at Kentucky in terms of landing elite high school prospects, he showcased his ability to find and get talent in the transfer portal for the Wolfpack, especially in 2023.
Justus helped recruit DJ Horne, Michael O’Connell and Jayden Taylor out of the portal last offseason, a trio that proved very important in N.C. State’s Cinderella run to the Final Four this year. They were three of the Wolfpack's top four players in terms of minutes per game while Horne led the team in scoring (16.9 per game), O'Connell led the team in assists (3.2 per game) and Taylor was third in scoring (11.2 per game).
In today's college basketball landscape, being a good recruiter both in terms of high school prospects and in the transfer portal is vital for success at the highest level. Given his background in both of those areas, Justus could prove to be a crucial hire for Diebler.
