Jake Diebler opens up about the path to his first season as Ohio State's head coach

Jake Diebler opens up about the path to his first season as Ohio State’s head coach

Posted by Admin November 7, 2024 Basketball

LAS VEGAS – With the glare of the sunlight reflecting off The Cosmopolitan’s high-rise hotel, it’s clear that Jake Diebler needs a shave.

It’s a Monday afternoon in the City of Lights, and it’s a big one for Diebler. The son of a coach who turned an in-season promotion into a full-time job by rescuing what was shaping up to be another lost Ohio State men’s basketball season, it was Diebler’s time to fully step into the lights they say shine as bright in this city as anywhere else.

Last year, for 11 games, Diebler was simply coaching to uphold the standards he feels the program deserves. Focus on the day, the next opponent, on serving his players as best he could without much thought for what could lie beyond the season’s looming end. Then new athletic director Ross Bjork hired him for the job, and suddenly there was a program to run and all the responsibilities that come with that.

For nearly eight months, it’s a yoke Diebler has learned to shoulder. Some lessons won’t be known until much later as the highs and lows of coaching Division I basketball present themselves. Monday night, though, was different.

This was game one of year one. The first unveiling of a rebuilt roster with five transfers and four freshmen. And, hovering around it all, the first data point on Diebler’s permanent record: a date with No. 19 Texas inside T-Mobile Arena to open the 2024-25 season.

First, though, was the matter of Sunday night. Did Diebler get a good night’s sleep?

“Define ‘good,’ ” he laughed, settling into a plush chair outside the team’s meeting room inside the Aria Resort & Casino.

Less than four hours before Ohio State got its 80-72 win against the Longhorns underway, Diebler rubs his chin and smiles. It’s the grin of a man who is excited for what lies ahead, one who legitimately wants to see what his team is made of but whose eyes also betray the aftereffects of a less-than-sufficient night’s rest.

“I got enough (sleep),” he said. “God provides just enough. Just enough sleep and just enough coffee.”

Diebler’s Monday began with a walk while he listened to a Sunday church service. Finding some outdoor space around the Las Vegas Strip, his mind then began turning to all the things that could happen in that night’s game. Planning for adjustments, and then adjustments to those adjustments, so that he could coach freely in the heat of the moment while asking his players to play with the same approach.

It combined to form a cornucopia of emotions.

“I think it’s a combination of excitement, a little bit of nerves,” Diebler said. “I just want our guys to play well at the end of the day. With the amount of work that we’ve put in, guys individually and us collectively, the staff, I just want us under the bright lights to play well, play hard, play tough and play together. At that point, if we do those things we’ll be right where we want to be.”

He had no way of knowing at the time how right he would be. Ohio State won the opening tip, scored on its first possession, opened up an 8-0 lead and never trailed against Texas. In its first game of the year, the Buckeyes lived out each of Diebler’s stated hopes in taking down the Longhorns.

Monday afternoon, though, there were still far more unknowns than knowns in Diebler’s mind, and some of that came from the fact that this was a different situation compared to navigating the end of the season as an interim coach.

“Last year during that stretch it was so much unknown,” he said. “There’s still a lot of unknown, but it’s different. Last year everybody was uncertain what the future was going to look like. Right now, we know that as important as this game is and that’s purely been our focus now for a significant stretch, we do know we have a game after this.”

Is this new unknown better than last year’s, worse, or somewhere in between?

“Just different,” he said, adding that the focus on serving the players and program as best as he could was one primary element of the job that hadn’t really changed.

That concept of family was waiting for Diebler at the end of the interview. His dad, mother-in-law, wife and four kids all made the trip to Las Vegas, as did some friends from Columbus and even a former player he coached while at Valparaiso. The clock was ticking, and a showcase game against the Longhorns loomed as Diebler wrapped things up to start the final pregame prep work.

Starting with a little cleaning up.

“I need to shave,” he said. “My wife likes me to be clean-shaven for the game. I need to spend a little time by myself to get cleaned up and then we’ll head over to the game.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy