OSU Head Coach Jake Diebler likes some of his program’s future NIL possibilities, but right now he’s focused on the next game. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Another struggle to get to the NCAA Tournament isn’t as much about the coach as many – and maybe you – think it is. The future of the program is attached to the bottom line.
Jake Diebler’s right. Now is not the time for him to discuss NIL funding and the long-range future of the Ohio State basketball program.
Fair game for everyone else. We’ll get to it. And the wealth required to be nationally relevant.
But first, Diebler’s immediate concern, as it should be, is Tuesday night’s 8:30 tipoff against No. 24 Wisconsin. After all, he got into this to coach.
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“All I want our guys thinking about is Wisconsin – how we can beat them,” Diebler said Monday.
The game matters mightily to the Buckeyes’ NCAA Tournament aspirations and provides a timely basketball-only comparison.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes the OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The Badgers are a Big Ten team with seven wins in their past nine games. They were once 7-4 and dropped to 9-5 after a 16-point loss at home to Purdue.
But starting January 6, the Badgers began to play like Wisconsin teams of old with good guards and long and athletic bigs who can shoot. They were the first team to beat Michigan, and they did it in Ann Arbor. A week ago they won at Illinois. On Friday they beat Michigan State at home. And they own a 92-82 home victory over Ohio State.
That stretch created an NCAA Tournament resume worthy of inclusion.
Sitting at 18-7, 10-4 in the Big Ten, 3-6 in Quad 1 games, No. 24 in the AP poll, No. 33 in the NCAA NET rankings and projected to be a No. 8 NCAA Tournament seed, the Badgers look like the team on paper Ohio State wants to be.
The depth-deprived and now injury-plagued Buckeyes are 16-9, 8-6 Big Ten, 0-8 in Quad 1, unranked by the AP, No. 38 in the NET and on the fateful bracketology list of “First Four Out.”
Bruce Thornton brought the kind of talent to the Ohio State program Jake Diebler needs more of if the Buckeyes are to compete at the top of the Big Ten.
This game is a must. It wouldn’t qualify, at least not yet, as Quad 1, but every win counts for something. Home wins qualify as Quad 1 if the opponent is Top 30 in the NET when the season ends. It’s top 50 on neutral courts and top 75 on the road.
The Buckeyes will have Quad 1 chances against Purdue, Michigan State, Iowa and possibly Indiana. Safe to say they probably need to find four wins (including at Penn State) to at least get into the First Four at UD Arena.
This final stretch is the current priority. And what matters is having good practices and players taking 100% ownership of every possession and executing, something they didn’t accomplish in the final 10 minutes Saturday in a missed Quad 1-opportunity loss to Virginia. And, still, playing to their ceiling might not be enough for the Buckeyes because the roster might not be deep enough to conquer a ranked team.
Beating Wisconsin and some ranked teams in late February and early March is what this season has come down to. So, why has the season come down to trying to swim to a shore that looks too far away?
Coaching? Diebler’s not perfect, but that’s not it.
Money and personnel. That separates winners and losers now in college basketball and football. Ohio State doesn’t win the 2024 football national championship without NIL money persuading key players not to enter the NFL Draft. Indiana doesn’t win it this year without Mark Cuban’s dollars.
Michigan isn’t a Final Four favorite with a lineup good enough to win it all without lucrative NIL deals putting big, strong and long bodies at Dusty May’s disposal. John Calipari is building a contender at Arkansas with Tyson Chicken proceeds.
While no one can say for sure how much dough the Ohio State basketball players are getting, rumors persist that they rank anywhere from 10th to 12th in the Big Ten. If true, or even close to it, that’s not good enough to compete at the level diehard basketball fans demand.
Ross Bjork’s ability to attract NIL dollars for men’s basketball is crucial to the success of Jake Diebler and the program long term.
In fact, if those NIL rankings are correct, the Buckeyes are outperforming their payroll in eighth place. Maybe Diebler should get a raise.
Fox play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson stood up for Diebler during Saturday night’s telecast when he said, “The difference between UVa and Ohio State is that UVa paid for it. Ohio State, they’ve given all the money to Ryan Day.”
When Johnson says Ohio State what he means is the third-party NIL donors. Of course, they’re going to give more to football. The exact numbers we don’t know – unlike professional sports – but you don’t need an imagination to understand that football gets more, a lot more.
“First and foremost, all information isn’t accurate information,” Diebler said. “There’s an element to NIL that’s hidden, and so everything you see or read, regardless of who it’s from, there’s a lot of inaccurate information out there.”
Building a team used to be all about relationships formed in recruiting, a skill Diebler was praised for as an assistant. That still plays a part, but money talks. Always has. Always will.
Will the money increase at Ohio State?
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“I know [athletic director] Ross [Bjork], his team, myself, have been working relentlessly to continue to push and increase our NIL situation,” Diebler said. “There’s things in motion that can’t impact the here and now but are exciting about the future. It’s a fight, it’s a battle, and we’re fighting it, and we’re fighting it together, and I’m appreciative of that.”
Sounds like a coach and an AD who plan to keep working together.
If Bjork wants the kinds of crowds for every game like the one when Michigan came to town, he has to convince the wealthy to make it happen. Otherwise, Diebler and all those who follow him will struggle to make the tournament every year. And Ohio State, which is not an elite Big Ten program despite what the Matta years made you think, will be just another Big Ten team in search of relevancy.
“There’s things in motion that can’t impact the here and now but are exciting about the future. It’s a fight, it’s a battle, and we’re fighting it, and we’re fighting it together, and I’m appreciative of that.” – Jake Diebler
No one claims Diebler is a Hall of Fame coach. But he’s not a bad coach either. To build this program to prominence would be difficult for any coach, including if the Buckeyes had hired Michigan’s Dusty May, an assumption many have made had he only been asked.
Hiring May might have put a few more dollars in the war chest. But it’s undeniable that Michigan, for as long as I can remember (back to 1976 with Phil Hubbard and Rickey Green), has been a consistently more relevant program and a better job.
I am often asked about the state of the program. Digging out from the Chris Holtmann mess is my first answer. Second, it takes money and time. Michigan has done it in far less time after the Juwan Howard mess, but May had more money to offer. And he got the big, strong and long athletes the Buckeyes are missing.
The teams that execute the best don’t necessarily have the best coaches – and I’m not saying May is just an average coach. Maybe time will reveal he’s a great coach. But the “best” coaches – a title many are ascribing to May right now – have the best talent. Talent and how it’s packaged in height, weight and length sure is good at making a coach look smart.
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Diebler talks often about getting the program back to where he believes it belongs, back to where Matta took it. I believe he knows how to create a culture players want to be a part of. I believe his team always plays hard for him. But, you fairly ask, does that mean he can complete this rebuild? If the money is right, is the only way we will know for sure.
Five-star Anthony Thompson is an Ohio kid who is staying home to be a Buckeye for at least next year. Building a championship caliber roster around Thompson should be the pitch to wealthy alums and fans who want a winner. Basketball has become a one-year proposition. And every time you build it right, you increase your chances of continuing to build it right if enough money exists.
The future priority of program building might seem reliant on the current priority of playing in the NCAA Tournament, but it shouldn’t be. At least not as referendum on whether Diebler should stay or go. That would be an emotional decision one way or the other. That’s not a good business strategy.
Even Holtmann wasn’t fired over one losing streak or one season of unfulfilled promises. He was fired over an accumulation of losing streaks and dashed hopes. I don’t expect Bjork to pull the plug on Diebler after this season. Two years isn’t enough to know – especially coming off what he inherited and the lack of fan interest – if Diebler can win with the amount of talent he needs to get to that level.
And, if Bjork fires Diebler, as a growing number of fans are calling for, but the NIL funding doesn’t swell significantly, then who ya gonna get?
The future of the program is up to Bjork and whether the school’s wealthy patrons want to be a part of it. Not what play Diebler calls out of a timeout.
The hot-commodity coaches who emerge every season in March, would first ask Bjork about money. Not how much they would make, but how much their players would make. If Bjork couldn’t promise top four in the Big Ten, their agents would advise them not to take the job.
Hate on that if you want. But it’s the truth.
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