The Jake Diebler era of Ohio State basketball is here.
As expected in the modern era of collegiate sport, his first roster features a majority of new faces. The Buckeyes could potentially have four transfer portal acquisitions starting on offense, and there are a lot of inexperienced – if talented – pieces on the roster, especially in the frontcourt.
The end of the Chris Holtmann era was a joyless slog for many Buckeye basketball fans. He accomplished less in his Januarys and Februarys than a vacationing group of Santa’s elves, going 6-23 in those two months in his last two seasons. Diebler took over as interim head coach last season following the 23rd of those losses and generated a new buzz about the program.
Ohio State closed its 2023-24 campaign with eight wins in 11 games under Diebler, starting with an upset of No. 2 Purdue and ending with a run to the quarterfinals of the NIT that concluded with a disappointing loss at home to Georgia.
An NCAA Tournament appearance is an expectation for Dielber in his first year, but more than that he wants a team that Ohio State alumni and fans enjoy watching and see exceptional effort from.
“It's important to me that our guys play with an extreme level of toughness and effort,” Diebler said on Wednesday. “I've said this, it's important to me when our former players, whether they're in the arena or watching us on TV, they are proud of that effort and toughness. And if they are, if we're doing that, if we're making them proud, I think that's going to serve us really well and get us good results.”
It might take time for Diebler’s first roster to develop and jell, but the Buckeyes hit the ground running with five Power Conference opponents in its non-conference schedule, starting Monday (10 p.m., TNT) when Ohio State faces Texas in the Hall of Fame Series in Las Vegas.
Diebler has breathed hope into the program, and the plan is to empower his players with confidence, pace and aggression. Now that he’s the full-time head coach, however, he’ll ultimately be judged by the results he gets from his team on the court.
Position-by-Position Breakdown
Guards
The experience of Ohio State’s backcourt is something the team will lean on with a frontcourt composed of underclassmen.
Junior point guard Bruce Thornton, likely to be a captain for the third time in as many seasons, is the mechanism behind it all. A starter since the first game of his freshman season, the preseason All-Big Ten performer upped his game as a sophomore in 2023-24 with 15.7 points and 4.8 assists per game, both team-highs.
“What I'm excited about is Bruce has grown his game, raised his level this offseason,” Diebler said. “It's not going to be a case where you're looking at a guy who just goes from sophomore to junior year and is a little bit better. I believe he's going to make a jump, and he and I have talked openly about him improving his efficiency and pace and things like that, and he's embraced that.”
Bruce Thornton is the engine driving Ohio State's offense at point guard.
Starting alongside him is Meechie Johnson Jr., a fifth-year senior. Johnson spent his first two seasons of college ball at Ohio State in a minor role, then transferred to South Carolina for two years and turned into a star before transferring back to Columbus this past offseason. He picked up 14.1 points and 2.9 assists last season as the Gamecocks went from 11-21 his first year there to 26-8 in year two.
Both Johnson and Thornton will need to work to improve their overall efficiency, however. Johnson shot 32.1% from three last season while Thornton had a 3-point shooting mark of 33.3%, a significant dip from his 37.5% mark as a freshman. Ohio State lost far and away its best 3-point shooter from the 2023-24 season in Jamison Battle, so it’s going to be critical that the team’s guards are consistent threats from outside. Not that Diebler doesn’t want frontcourt players who can knock shots down from outside, too.
“Pace and space go hand in hand for us,” Diebler said. “We want to be really good at both of those, and I think that will allow us to put teams in rotation more and will ultimately help us to get better looks from three. We certainly increased our three-point value from our first scrimmage to our second, which was good. We needed to do that. And we want to continue that for that to be a big part of our game.”
It’s up for debate who will be the first player off the bench behind Johnson and Thornton. Freshman sharpshooter John Mobley Jr., a top-50 prospect who shot 41.5% from downtown in Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League last year and was dubbed “the Sniper” in 247Sports’ recruiting class of 2024 superlatives, seems to be the most likely option.
Kansas State transfer Ques Glover has the benefit of experience, however. A sixth-year senior, he spent the first two years of his college career at Florida before turning into a two-time first-team All-Southern Conference performer at Samford and heading off to the Wildcats. He missed all of last season due to injury but has a 19.2 point-per-game season with Samford in 2021-22 to his credit.
The veteran presence of Thornton, Johnson and Glover paired with the talents of the freshman Mobley should make the backcourt the backbone of Diebler’s first roster.
Wings
Micah Parrish gives Ohio State a versatile "tone-setter" on defense with offensive capabilities.
Part of Diebler’s new-look style for Ohio State basketball features a lot of versatility, and thus the term “wing” is even broader than it usually is here. For the sake of this story, we’ll say these are players who could play small forward for the Buckeyes this year.
The most likely option to start at the three is San Diego State transfer Micah Parrish. Parrish started 36 games for the Aztecs last season and has 94 starts for his career, 57 of which came in two years at Oakland.
Parrish was a do-everything player for SDSU, which was the NCAA runner-up his first year there and a Sweet 16 team in his second. In 2023-24, he averaged 9.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He’s a career 33.2% shooter from 3-point range, a number that could stand to improve but is still serviceable.
What doesn’t come across on a stat sheet is his versatility and energy level on the defensive end of the floor.
“At San Diego State I was known as the tone-setter. I set the tone on defense,” Parrish said in July. “When I set the tone, most of the time, usually all the time, teammates follow, everybody follows. That’s what I’m trying to do here on the defensive and offensive end.”
“At San Diego State I was known as the tone-setter. I set the tone on defense.”– Micah Parrish
Parrish is also versatile enough to take on some ball-handling and distribution duties in Ohio State’s backcourt. Diebler expressed that Parrish will have that sort of an offensive role since he first spoke about the portal addition. With only four true guards on the Buckeyes’ roster who are expected to contribute this season, he’ll provide needed depth.
Ohio State also returns its starting small forward from last season in Evan Mahaffey. He picked up 4.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists, one steal and 0.7 blocks per game in 2023-24. Mahaffey handled the ball in a lot of press-break situations for the Buckeyes and some other settings, but he might have to settle into a role off the bench for this year’s squad.
“Although he got really consistent minutes last year his role on this team may be a little bit different,” Diebler said. “As he gets more consistent minutes in this new role and gets comfortable, I want him to be more aggressive offensively. And as he gets comfortable doing that, I think there's a lot of potential with his physical tools. But guys got to embrace the aggressiveness and the confidence in general that I want them to play with. And not everybody’s been coached that way. And believe it or not, that’s an adjustment.”
Freshman Colin White rounds out the list of players who are primarily small forwards on the 2024-25 Ohio State basketball roster. A three-star prospect listed as the No. 156 recruit in the 247Sports composite, his physicality and mentality have been praised by coaches and teammates, but he’s a less likely option for significant playing time in his first year.
Sophomore Devin Royal will be another option at the 3, and he worked to expand his shooting range in the offseason, but he’ll probably see more time at power forward. Speaking of which:
Forwards
Center Aaron Bradshaw has a five-star recruiting pedigree but needs to develop to reach his potential.
This position group has ample upside for Ohio State, but it is equally inexperienced.
Two transfers who both enter their sophomore years as five-star prospects who did not pin down consistent roles at blueblood programs highlight the frontcourt rotation. The first is seven-foot Aaron Bradshaw, a transfer from Kentucky who started 10 games for the Wildcats before February then did not start again.
That doesn’t mean he didn’t show flashes. Bradshaw posted 17 points in his second career game and shot 57.6% from the field on the season. Despite his length, he has the athleticism to run the floor and push the pace in the style that Diebler wants to play at. He also went 4-of-14 shooting 3-pointers last year, and it’s an element of his game that might get more exposure in Columbus.
“I think his ability to do things at his size has been great,” Diebler said in July. “And I would say we're pushing him to maybe do some things he's not used to doing on the court. But he's got the ability to do it, and I think a lot of it is just getting reps and experience. He can handle it. He can pass it. And to be able to do it at his size is really impressive.”
Ohio State will be banking on him to develop into something matching his ranking as the No. 1 center in the 2023 recruiting class. Though it could play small ball with one of its power forwards at the five, the only other true centers on the Buckeyes’ roster are less heralded sophomore Austin Parks and freshman Croatian Ivan Njegovan, who brings an interesting skill set at the position but is considered a developmental prospect.
Duke transfer Sean Stewart is the other five-star big man from the 2023 recruiting class Diebler nabbed from the portal.
Stewart set the Blue Devils’ program record for a vertical leap at 36 inches, breaking the mark of NBA star Zion Williamson. Stewart never started and played just 8.3 minutes per game in a veteran Duke frontcourt, but his production in that limited action speaks to the potential for more. Stewart posted 12.7 points, 15.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per 40 minutes played. His rebounding rate than the top rebounder on last year’s Ohio State team, Felix Okpara, who pulled in 10.9 boards per 40 minutes.
The mid-range and interior game is where Stewart is looking to contribute on the offensive end of the floor, and as a high-flyer, he could be on the receiving end of some alley-oops this season. If he and Bradshaw both live up to their five-star hype in year two, that’s where Ohio State could go from a good team to a special one given some of its proven assets at other positions.
None of that is to discount Royal, who came on strong at the end of last season and is a top-50 class of 2023 prospect in his own right. He’s a threat on the offensive glass and on the offensive end in general, especially if he adds the 3-point shot he’s been working to develop this offseason.
“Just being there, more time on the court, a higher 3-point percentage,” Royal said at Ohio State’s media day of his goals for 2024-25. “I want it, really, close to 40 (percent). And be able to guard guards off screens and just all around, just get better.”
Schedule Overview
Ohio State hits the ground running.
The aforementioned tilt with Texas, a neutral-site game in Las Vegas as part of the Hall of Fame Series, is the first of five Power Conference opponents the Buckeyes face in their non-conference schedule. That also includes a true road game against No. 13 Texas A&M (Nov. 15), Ohio State’s lone home tilt of the five with Pitt (Nov. 29) and two more neutral-site contests against No. 11 Auburn (Dec. 14 in Atlanta) and Kentucky (Dec. 21 in New York).
Clearly, Diebler believes greatness is forged in fire because testing a team with so many new pieces early and often. That was even true in Ohio State's 80-62 exhibition loss against Cincinnati.
“Make no mistake, I wanted us to play better,” Diebler said after that game. “But the intent was to get exposed in a couple areas so we have a couple weeks leading into our first game to get better. Like, it’s no secret this is a really good offensive rebounding team. It’s kind of part of their DNA. That’s an area, as much as we want to simulate in practice, we need reps against a really good team in that regard.”
The Longhorns should provide another test, even though they also have tons of new faces in key roles. A second-round team in the NCAA Tournament last season, they signed the No. 5 recruit in the 2024 class in guard Tre Johnson alongside a deep six-man transfer portal group. That includes five players who scored 11 or more points per game last year at their previous stops, those being former Oregon State point guard Jordan Pope (17.6), former Arkansas guard Tramon Mark (16.5), former Kansas State forward Arthur Kaluma (14.4), former Indiana State forward Jayson Kent (13.5) and former Indiana State guard Julian Larry (11).
Like Diebler, head coach Rodney Terry got his head coaching job through a midseason promotion to interim head coach with his promotion coming in December 2022. He earned the full-time job by guiding the Longhorns to a Big 12 Championship and the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament that season, the first time in 15 years the program made it that far in the Big Dance.
“I'm excited about our program being on such a big stage day one of college basketball season. I think that is an awesome aspect of this game,” Diebler said. “Certainly the quality of our opponent is big to have that type of quality opponent in our non-conference. And we have several of them, which is important. But being on this stage day one of college basketball was something I think our guys are really, really excited about and our fans deserve.”
“I'm excited about our program being on such a big stage day one of college basketball season. I think that is an awesome aspect of this game.”– Jake Diebler on Ohio State's season-opener against Texas
In conference play, the Buckeyes face No. 17 Indiana, Nebraska and Maryland twice while seeing the other 14 schools of the Big Ten once. Outside of the Hoosiers, the only three Big Ten teams currently ranked in the AP poll are No. 14 Purdue, No. 22 UCLA and No. 25 Rutgers. Ohio State gets the Boilermakers and Bruins on the road with the Scarlet Knights at home. Illinois, who received the most votes of teams not ranked in the preseason AP Top 25, is another road game for OSU.
While the Big Ten is deep in terms of decent teams, it’s light on national title contenders. If everything comes together in just the right way, there’s a path for Ohio State to compete atop the league.
Overall Outlook
Is Diebler a proven head coach yet? No. Do I think he took the approach needed to inject some juice into a program that desperately needed some? Yes.
The way he built his first roster says a lot of things about the native Ohioan. Talk to Diebler or talk to anyone about him and you’ll learn he’s an incredibly authentic individual. It’s given him some solid recruiting success so far, but it also instills a lot of confidence in his players. This will sound wishy-washy, but when he says he believes in his players, you believe him, especially when he rolls depth in the way he did last year. One has to think the players believe it as well.
That trust can be beneficial for development. And development is going to be key for this Ohio State team. Diebler is investing in young, elite talents like Bradshaw and Stewart and trusting they’ll develop to meet their five-star pedigrees. He’s also trusting players like Parrish, Royal and even his maestro Thornton to develop and expand their games, especially as 3-point shooters.
This is a head coach who pushes the aggression and pace of practice by hopping into drills with his players. The identity he wants is to have an aggressive team that pushes the pace of games.
“We have to earn the right to play well by the way we prepare,” Diebler said. “Certainly an element of that is the physicality and the toughness and the effort and things that we're practicing with. I like us to practice at a pace and an urgency to where the game almost slows down a little bit. So I think we're getting better and better at that.”
The intensity is palpable watching Jake Diebler coach pic.twitter.com/42t2GxqUCs
— Andy Anders (@AndyAnders55) July 9, 2024
There’s a risk of a low floor when one aims for a high ceiling, but Diebler is confident he can develop his team toward the latter. He’s recruited and built toward an identity, but the question is how long the growing pains will last with so many new parts. If things start clicking quickly enough, his first Ohio State team could make some noise.
Prediction: 21-10 regular season, second round of the NCAA Tournament
