Despite Devin Royal’s Buckeye State background and surge in the second half of last season, there was still a decision for him to make when Ohio State’s basketball program transitioned from Chris Holtmann to Jake Diebler.
Five of Royal’s teammates became teammates no more via the transfer portal. He could have easily joined them in that respect if he felt his future was brighter elsewhere.
Ultimately, the primary reason Royal stayed with the Buckeyes was Diebler himself.
“Just the role and what Dieb has planned for me this year coming up,” Royal said. “The guys he’s got coming in, the key (pieces) he’s got. He just wanted me to come in and be more of a key point than last year, so that’s what I really wanted to be in. Me and Dieb have a great relationship. That's kind of like family. So it was good to stay around.”
With Royal’s bond with his head coach and expanding role keeping him in Columbus, the power forward is drilling down on his shooting and leadership in preparation for his sophomore year.
“More of having the ball in my hands, executing, shooting it, playing both sides of the court,” Royal said. “So all of the above.”
Royal entered Ohio State as a four-star prospect out of Pickerington Central High School ranked as the No. 49 player and No. 9 power forward in the composite rankings for the recruiting class of 2023. Diebler served as Royal’s lead recruiter, though Holtmann was the head coach at the time.
Their relationship has grown since then.
“Connected, strong, able to talk to each other like normal, like human beings, like it's not just a coach and a player,” Royal said of his bond with Diebler. “(I’m able to) talk to him face-to-face about anything.”
Royal’s play on the court has grown, too.
He didn’t see the court much early, playing just eight minutes combined in his first six games with nine total points. Royal showed some flashes in game seven, however, scoring 11 points in an 88-61 win over Central Michigan.
Royal went more than two months before recording another double-digit scoring game, but his production picked up after Diebler took over. In Ohio State’s final 11 games of the season under the then-interim head coach’s guidance, Royal averaged 7.6 points and 3.3 rebounds while shooting 50.8% from the floor in 17 minutes per game. For the season as a whole, Royal averaged 4.7 points and 2.4 boards on 50.9% shooting in 11.2 minutes per game.
“I think it went better from the beginning of the season,” Royal said of how he closed down the stretch. “I feel like I came in, showed what I can do – a little bit of what I can do – but there's still a lot more to show, for sure.”
“He just wanted me to come in and be more of a key point than last year, so that’s what I really wanted to be in. Me and Dieb have a great relationship. That's kind of like family.”– Devin Royal on his relationship with Jake Diebler
In 2024-25, Royal will share the frontcourt with a new pair of five-star talents in Aaron Bradshaw and Sean Stewart. While Royal said it was a “little hard” at first because they didn’t know each other from before, they’ve been hanging out and building a connection over the last several weeks.
“Just learning from new guys coming in, or even teaching them because I was here last year,” Royal said of how he’s approaching the new additions. “Teach them a couple of points. But it's good how all of us can learn from each other and we don't have, like, big egos where we can't listen to each other and learn from things.”
Royal’s expanded role is expected to feature an ability to space the floor for those interior pieces around him. While he shot just 3-of-20 from outside in 2023-24, he showed more 3-point shooting ability in high school and Diebler has seen growth from Royal in that area this offseason.
“I think some of our guys with size, the way we’re going to play, there’s going to be some more spacing,” Diebler said on June 10. “There’s gonna be opportunity for them to shoot. ... I think Devin Royal is a guy who’s improved, we worked really hard on that this spring and he’s shown some real improvement in that. It’s something we’ll monitor, certainly, but I’m confident in (our 3-point shooting).”
It’s been the top objective for Royal in practice.
“The main focus point coming in next year is being able to shoot the ball at a high percentage,” Royal said. “Catch and shoot, come off screens, and being able to shoot quicker and more efficiently is my main goal.”
Outside of his play, Royal is also growing into more of a leadership role in the locker room. Perhaps not to the extent of multi-time captain and point guard Bruce Thornton, but enough to show incoming freshmen and transfers the ropes.
“A little bit because a lot of guys don't know everything that’s going on,” Royal said. “Me, Bruce, Evan (Mahaffey) are the main returning guys. So us three just teaching them and showing them the way, kind of how Dieb wants to do things.”
Driving that leadership and the bonds between he, Diebler and the rest of his teammates is, above all else, a desire to accomplish great feats at Ohio State. That’s especially important for Royal, who grew up in the school’s backyard.
“First coming here, I always wanted to leave a legacy,” Royal said. “This is the perfect opportunity, and we all want the same thing. We all want to win so badly, and that's our main focus, our main goal. We need to win. We need to – not even be better from last year, just be better as a team and just get better every day so we can win a lot more games than last year. So we all want it really bad.”
