The Ohio State basketball program made a major change around this time last year. They ended up firing Chris Holtmann and promoted Jake Diebler as the interim head coach. He almost took the Buckeyes on a run to the NCAA Tournament but came up just a bit short.
After that inspiring run, new AD Ross Bjork decided to give Diebler the full-time job. He thought that Diebler had done enough to warrant being the head coach. Now, the Ohio State Buckeyes have just a few games left in the regular season before the Big Ten Tournament starts.
As things currently sit, the Buckeyes are 15-11 overall and 7-8 in the Big Ten. They sit tenth in the Big Ten standings, so they are solidly in the field for the Big Ten Tournament, which is only taking the top-15 teams. How should we assess Diebler's performance as the head coach?
Assessing Jake Diebler's performance so far for the Ohio State basketball team
Diebler clearly hit some growing plans early in the year. They absolutely melted down against Pitt early in the year, blowing that game. After that experience, Buckeye fans were hopeful that he would learn from that and be able to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Unfortunately, he has several other instances of blowing close games down the stretch. The Buckeyes lost three straight games to Oregon, Wisconsin, and Indiana by a combined five points. Ohio State also blew a game to Nebraska last week and should have closed out Michigan on Sunday.
On the flip side, Ohio State has three outstanding wins. They have a win at Purdue, at a neutral site over Kentucky, and at home against Maryland. Those three wins significantly boost their resume for the NCAA Tournament. Diebler also was able to get his team to close out games against Minnesota and Purdue, so they can clearly close out games.
Overall, Diebler's performance gets a B so far. That's an acceptable grade for someone who is in his first full year as a head coach. He needs his team to win out for them to comfortably be in the NCAA Tournament, but that is well within reach with the schedule they have left.