It's Official: Ohio State Is Dropping The Interim Tag And Naming Jake Diebler THE Head Basketball Coach
Great hire. That's my take. GREAT first hire by the new Ohio State Athletic Director, Ross Bjork. Not only did Diebler earn the job by going 6-2 down the stretch and giving Ohio State basketball fans the best month we've had in essentially the last decade, but Bjork's statement he released on why we went with Diebler fires me the fuck up:
As an Ohio native, the son of a longtime Ohio high school coach and with deep connections to Ohio State, Jake knows what it takes to lead this program on a championship course.
Ohio born. Ohio bred. Son of an Ohio high school basketball coach. Brother of an Ohio State basketball legend. Husband of an Ohio State graduate. And father to three, soon to be four, Ohio blooded children. I fucking love this hire more than you can imagine, for that very specific reason. I know I'm not with the majority here, but something irks me about the fact that Jim Tressel (Ohio guy) dominated Michigan, Urban Meyer (Ohio guy) dominated Michigan, and now Ryan Day (New Hampshire's finest) lost the complete stranglehold we had on the rivalry and handed Michigan 3 straight Big Ten titles and a National Championship. So yeah, I'm not saying it's the only reason, but I like the idea of an Ohio guy leading the most important thing in the state.
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Regardless, this blog isn't about THE Ohio State football team, it's about Jake Diebler earning this job and our AD making the right hire. He finished 6-2, and honestly, if the refs didn't fuck us the other day against Illinois, he'd have won 7 of 8 games and we'd be firmly in the NCAA Tournament today. Might even be playing for a Big Ten championship tonight. I'm so in on this hire (and so is the guy sitting next to me, Mark Titus), that I can't even listen to people that don't think it's a good one.
To the people that disagree with this hire, I have two questions:
1. Why? What do you want that Diebler can't do? This man can recruit his fucking cock off. He has incredible connections in Ohio. He's a young, players coach. And he gets our team to play really, really hard. Ummm, yeah, I'll take him.
2. Who were we going to get....? Greg McDermott just signed an extension. Nate Oats just signed an extension. Lamont Paris just signed an extension. So name me someone you want that would actually come? Dusty May? Jake Diebler is a better hire than Dusty May and I'm not discussing otherwise. If we could find a billion dollars to get Brad Stevens or Jay Wright to get out of retirement, I'd agree with you. But from the coaching pool available, there was NO ONE better than THE Ohio guy that just proved he's got what it takes.
Great first hire, Mr. Bjork. I wish he could continue to show it in the tournament (and I talked to my basketball correspondent Reags this morning and he thinks he should still be invited to Dayton), but we're NIT Bound....if we accept the invitation. I hope we do, and we can roll into next year on a high note. But either way, we're on to 2024-2025. Let's get to work, Coach.
….is Jon Diebler, current assistant at Butler, coming home? I want a staff of Jake Dieber (Head Coach), Jon Diebler (Shooting Coach), Aaron Craft (Defensive Coordinator), Greg Oden (Post Coach), and Mark Titus (Director of Propaganda). Make Ohio State Basketball Great Again.