Even though Ross Bjork spearheaded the Buckeyes’ basketball coaching search and ultimately hired Jake Diebler, Gene Smith still feels a stake in the native Ohioan’s outcome.
“I do have some ownership in it,” Smith told Eleven Warriors on last week’s Real Pod Wednesdays. “I do feel I have some personal pride in it.”
Smith’s formula for Diebler’s success isn’t a revelatory one – he boiled it down to staff hires, transfer portal savvy and recruiting – but it’s nonetheless one that he’ll be vested in as he watches the team’s progression from his new home in Arizona following his retirement as Ohio State’s athletic director after this week.
“He's doing a great job,” Smith said. “This year is going to be a challenging year. It's year one from that perspective. So the expectations have to be consistent with reality. But I think he's going to do a really, really good job. And I'm looking forward to seeing him in Vegas on November 4th. I'll be at that game when they play Texas.”
Smith may not have hired Diebler full-time, but he was the man who pulled the trigger on firing former head coach Chris Holtmann midseason on Feb. 14 and promoting Diebler, then Holtmann’s top assistant, to an interim head coaching role.
As most reading this will know, Diebler earned the full-time gig in many ways through his performance after that appointment. Ohio State closed its regular season on a 6-2 tear that gave it an outside shot at the NCAA Tournament, shocking then-No. 2 Purdue and earning a bye through the first round of the Big Ten Tournament after a 3-9 start to conference play.
The Buckeyes fell three points short against No. 13 Illinois in the quarterfinals of the league tourney and missed the Big Dance as a result. A run to the quarterfinals of the NIT followed, however, ending with a 79-77 loss to Georgia.
“I did advise on (the hire) and, obviously, appointed him the interim that gave him the platform to (have) a résumé builder, so to speak, and an interview opportunity,” Smith said. “And he did exceptionally well. Not just the wins that we were fortunate to have. The Purdue win was huge, the Michigan State win was huge. But how he handled the team and the energy and the engagement with the fans, I mean, all those things are critical.”
What followed in the offseason was a smidge of transfer portal chaos. Two of Ohio State’s starters from last season, Roddy Gayle Jr. and Felix Okpara, left for Michigan and Tennessee, respectively. Key bench pieces in Scotty Middleton and Zed Key left for Seton Hall and Dayton, while Bowen Hardman hit the road upstate to Akron.
But Smith was impressed with Diebler’s response. Ohio State brought in a pair of five-star prospects from the recruiting class of 2023 in forwards Aaron Bradshaw and Sean Stewart, reacquired the services of star guard Meechie Johnson Jr. and grabbed a versatile wing in Micah Parrish.
“I think he's done a great job in the portal,” Smith said. “We were fortunate enough to hold on to a few guys that were, I think, a part of our future. I did not anticipate that we would lose Roddy Gayle. That was a loss, and then of course Felix. I was hopeful that we could retain those two. But that's the new world we're in, particularly with basketball. I think (the portal) is more impactful there just because of the numbers. But he's got a great roster, great kids in our culture.”
When it comes to coaching or even support staff, there’s one word echoed by Smith that Diebler spoke to at his first press conference of the summer on June 10 – alignment. That is, making sure everyone is working toward the same common goals.
“Jake needed to hire his staff and make sure that there's total alignment with the staff, support staff and the people in the department that support basketball,” Smith said. “I think that's critical.”
It’s clear that Diebler’s goal is to win championships, which he and his players have perhaps been more upfront about this offseason than in previous campaigns under Holtmann. But he’s also invested in both the on- and off-court development of the program’s players.
Diebler brought in a diverse array of experiences to accomplish those objectives, building an assistant coaching staff that includes a former head coach in Dave Dickerson, a rising industry star in Joel Justus and a former star player turned recent coach in Talor Battle.
“I love the guys that we've been able to bring in and when I was going through the hiring process, there were a couple things that I was trying to stay committed to making decisions based upon,” Diebler said. “Do I think it's helping us move toward winning a championship? And then, are these guys committed to helping young men grow? Which is something I'm really passionate about. Like, that had to be aligned for this to work.”
The last piece is recruiting, which remains the lifeblood of college athletics programs even in the Stalingradian era of the portal.
There’s a treasure trove of talent in the Buckeyes’ backyard in the next few recruiting cycles. Five of the nation’s composite top 200 prospects in the class of 2025 reside in Ohio, including five-star power forward Niko Bundalo, a current OSU target. Another five-star target, guard Darryn Peterson, is from Ohio originally and will take an official visit to Columbus on Aug. 1.
Ohio also holds three of the nation’s top 50 recruits in the class of 2026, with five-star guard Marcus Johnson already committed to Diebler as the top Buckeye State product in his class.
“The recruiting part, Ohio is blessed over the next couple of years to have some unbelievably talented basketball players,” Smith said. “We’ve got to be strong in that space, which played well for Jake in the hire. It all comes down to players, you guys know that. Great players make great coaches.”
Through it all, Smith will watch from afar as the man he positioned to prove his mettle as an interim coach tries to do the same as its full-time head coach.
