The Ohio State basketball team was able to beat the Texas Longhorns on Monday night in the first game of the season. It was Jake Diebler's first win since the interim tag was taken away from him. They won 80-72 in a game that they led most of the way through.
Getting a win was the most important thing to come out of this game. The Buckeyes are glad to be starting the season 1-0 with a good neutral-site victory. What is also very important is that Diebler has modernized the style of play of this team. They no longer plod along in the half-court.
Diebler has this team playing with a faster pace and has them shooting more threes. Micah Parrish, a transfer from San Diego State, was the guy who started the three-point barrage. He made two threes early and eventually finished 3/6 from deep and had 17 points.
Jake Diebler has the Ohio State basketball team modernized with their style of play
Now, the Buckeyes are a team that can compete in any game. I'm slightly dubious of their ability to shoot 50% from deep in every game, especially at the volume of shots they launched in this game, but they aren't going to be shy. Diebler wants this team to take more deep shots.
The other thing that Diebler really seemed to instill in his team is rebounding with force. It seemed like Chris Holtmann's teams in the last couple of years were always getting killed on the glass. In this game against the Longhorns, the Ohio State Buckeyes out-rebounded Texas.
Ohio State basketball fans hope they will get to see more of this throughout the year. This is a team that is going to be fun to watch, a massive change from the last couple of years.