The Ohio State basketball program has not had a good last few years. They have missed the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons, which is an embarrassing drought. Not only have they had a lack of team success, but individual success has been hard to come by.
Wednesday night is the first round of the NBA Draft, and there won't be any Buckeyes who hear their names called. After another disastrous season, no one declared for the draft. Those who are eligible won't be good enough to make the league, even as a second-round pick.
It's an embarrassing reminder of where the Ohio State Buckeyes have fallen to. They should be in a position where they are putting players in the NBA almost every single year. That's what Jake Diebler is trying to get the program back to as the head coach of the Buckeyes.
The Ohio State basketball program won't have any players drafted in the 2025 NBA Draft
Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, the last time they had a player drafted into the NBA was all the way back in 2023 when Brice Sensabaugh was the 28th overall pick by the Utah Jazz. While Chris Holtmann did produce a few NBA Draft picks, he wasn't able to produce the number that he should have.
Diebler is trying to do his best to get his program back on track to the Thad Matta days. Those were the golden days of the program, as they had the most sustained success they'd had since the 1990s. Next season is going to be a very key season for Diebler.
Having the NBA talent back in the program would give Ohio State a chance to win more games and actually make the NCAA Tournament more consistently. Not just that, but they could actually make some noise in the postseason.