One priority pierced Brandon Noel’s mind when he perused his options in the transfer portal.
“I wanted to win,” Noel said. “I came from a winning program at Wright State, and that was something I wanted to continue to do. The vision here and the pieces they had in place made a lot of sense for me to come in and join this and look toward winning.”
Ohio State basketball needs to win more in 2025-26, its second season under first-time head coach Jake Diebler. The Buckeyes have missed three consecutive NCAA Tournaments. It’s why their new mantra this year is “Winning over everything.”
Noel believes the program will bounce back this year, strongly enough to spend his final year of college basketball in Columbus.
“I think there's two key reasons there,” Noel said. “One of them is they returned so many guys. I mean, I go down the line, they have like seven or eight returners, and all of them have played some sort of impact here. So that's the first thing. And the second thing is the coaching staff. When they were preaching to me their message and their things that they want to get done, I aligned with those things. And I believe them, and I think both those two things combined just really led me to be here.”
Noel was the No. 2 scorer in the Horizon League last year, averaging 19 points per game to pace Wright State. He shot 55.2% from the field and 35.8% from 3-point range.
Each of Noel’s three seasons as a starter for the Raiders featured at least 13 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. He’s had a balanced defensive impact, picking up 0.9 steals and 0.9 blocks per game. At 6-foot-8, he’ll add more length to the power forward position than Ohio State had last year in Devin Royal (6-foot-6), who is sliding to small forward. Noel’s game at Wright State was that of a bona fide three-level scorer who produced on the glass and defensively.
“I think I'm a pretty versatile player,” Noel said. “I like to play on both ends, offensively, defensively, in the post, out of the post, shoot 3s. I try and guard a lot of different positions. My switchability, guarding guards, guarding bigs. I just think I'm very versatile. And I really strive on doing whatever is needed. Whatever the coaches tell me to do, want me to do, that's what I try to do.”
There are no mysteries in Noel’s game. The primary uncertainty lies in how it will translate to the Big Ten. He’s confident there, too, especially with another offseason of development.
“Really just the belief in myself,” Noel said. “And another thing is the staff's belief in me. Like, they brought me here for a reason. I didn't just happen to luck into this, you know what I mean? So I think a combination of that and the belief in myself and all the work over the years that I've put in to get here, I think is something – I just have to believe in myself.”
Ohio State also doesn’t need him to be the team’s leading scorer. The Buckeyes return a core of three strong scoring threats in Royal, Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr., who will occupy spots 1 through 3 in their starting lineup. The idea in the portal was to build out the frontcourt and add depth.
Diebler landed former Santa Clara center Christoph Tilly alongside Noel to form Ohio State’s likely new starting frontcourt. Former Baylor center Josh Ojianwuna will provide more support if and when he gets healthy during the season. In either case, Diebler doesn’t need Tilly and Noel to be superstars, just more productive than last year’s Buckeye bigs.
“We need them to be impactful, there's no question about it, but I don't think we need either of them to be the same player they were,” Diebler said. “This is going to be the best team that both of those guys have played on. It's not that they haven't played on good teams, but the best collection of talent that they've played on.”
Ohio State had to win a recruiting battle for Noel’s services, as plenty of schools were interested in the No. 179 portal prospect per 247Sports. The power forward’s phone was dinging more than the service bell at an old-school diner.
“It's crazy,” Noel said. “It's just as crazy as you're going to read. I have an agent and stuff, which is also a totally new landscape for college basketball. So between me and my agent, I couldn't tell you how many calls and texts and stuff like that that he took and I took. It’s just crazy. It's not exactly for the weak at heart, but it's something that, you know, to be in this position, you have to go through with it. So that's just what I did.”
The Film Room With Coach Diebler, Part 2 - Breaking down incoming Transfer Brandon Noels game
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) May 16, 2025
His combination of , , , and is really going to help us this season. #GoBucks | #FightToTheEnd pic.twitter.com/7AkrW3PRYm
Since arriving in Columbus, Noel’s tried to be a catalyst for the winning program he wants to see.
“One of the biggest things that I've noticed in this team is competitiveness,” Noel said. “Everyone wants to win at all times, and we're making things that probably couldn't even be games be games. Just like your regular shooting drills, we’re competing to see who gets the most makes. And that's probably common at a lot of places, but it's one of the things here, we’re doing that almost every day. Just trying to have that competitive nature that brings us closer at the same time pushes us to be better.”
Noel doesn’t know yet exactly how much of his Horizon League production he’ll replicate in the Big Ten. But his work and that of his team gives him faith they’ll all be successful in 2025-26,
“I've probably played six or seven high major games in my career thus far, and I'm getting ready to play a schedule full of 25-plus high major games,” Noel said. “So it's going to be, definitely, an adjustment. There's going to be some new things that I'm not used to. But I'm going to have to tackle that head on, and I've got my guys around me that will back me up and be out there with me.”
