Jake Diebler’s Big Debut Win Brings Hope to Ohio State Basketball

Real Pod Wednesdays

There’s finally something positive to talk about with Ohio State men’s basketball.

After struggling through most of January and February in Chris Holtmann’s final weeks as head coach, the Buckeyes started Jake Diebler’s interim coaching tenure off with a bang by upsetting No. 2 Purdue, 73-69, to earn their biggest win of the season in their first game following Holtmann’s firing.

Could that win spark a late run back into NCAA Tournament contention for the Buckeyes? We assess what would need to happen for Ohio State to have a realistic shot at getting into the Big Dance, which certainly starts with snapping its 16-game road losing streak as it hits the road twice this week to play Minnesota and Michigan State.

As for the future of the program, could Diebler’s hot start make him a candidate to get the head coaching job permanently? We discuss why that’s probably still a long shot and what would need to happen for Diebler to make a real run at the job before evaluating some of the other potential candidates for the job including Doug McDermott, Chris Jent, Dusty May, Sean Miller and Jay Wright.

In the second half of the show, we turn our attention to Ohio State football and share our thoughts on why promoting James Laurinaitis was the right move to round out this year’s coaching staff and what stood out to us from Tuesday’s interview sessions with Laurinaitis and Matt Guerrieri.

The full rundown for this week’s episode:

• 1:00: Gene Smith thought Jake Diebler would provide a spark, and he was proven right
• 7:56: Ohio State’s path to the NCAA Tournament remains uphill, but it’s not impossible
• 16:21: What would need to happen the rest of this season for Diebler to be the new head coach?
• 21:07: A look at some potential candidates for OSU’s coaching search, which has no clear frontrunner
• 29:46: Ohio State likely won’t have its new coach until late March or early April
• 32:07: James Laurinaitis, Matt Guerrieri both seem like coaches recruits will want to play for
• 35:58: Hiring a different assistant wouldn’t have been worth the risk of losing Laurinaitis
• 39:24: Adding a full-time linebackers coach will allow Jim Knowles to work with all position groups
• 40:20: Ohio State’s now-completed coaching staff is well-balanced on both sides of the ball
• 43:01: Guerrieri’s schematic expertise, ability to teach it explain move to replace Perry Eliano
• 51:16: Will Sonny Styles be a safety or a linebacker this year? The answer could be both
• 54:23: Laurinaitis seems optimistic about what C.J. Hicks can become this offseason
• 58:17: Gabe Powers and Arvell Reese also in the mix for playing time at LB this year