Grading the Ohio State basketball team's offseason
By Ryan Stano
The Ohio State basketball program has had a very eventful last three months. They fired Chris Holtmann and made Jake Diebler the interim head coach. After almost making the NCAA Tournament with a big run in March, they gave Diebler the full-time gig. Then, they added a bunch of players from the transfer portal.
Ohio State remade its program with the vision of the Diebler era. About half the roster is filled with new players and that might be a good thing based on what we saw over the past couple of years. Diebler also surrounded himself with some great assistant coaches.
Let's start with the players he brought in. Meechie Johnson is back after two years at South Carolina. Aaron Bradshaw comes in as the new starting center and is a former five-star recruit. Sean Stewart comes in to possibly back him up and should get at least 15-20 minutes a game.
Micah Parrish will likely be the starter at small forward and brings defensive versatility to the Ohio State basketball team's lineup. There is also still another player that the Buckeyes could bring in, perhaps a guard. They have done a good job of identifying weaknesses and fixing them.
Diebler's coaching staff also was put together well. Diebler surrounded himself with coaches who have a wealth of experience and can help him with any sort of new situation he gets stuck in. That's extremely valuable for a first-time head coach to have.
Ohio State basketball offseason grade: A
For being a first-time head coach, it's hard to have a much better offseason than Diebler has had. Sure, it would have been better if Roddy Gayle didn't go to Michigan. That's not something Diebler can control though. Once he enters the portal, there's nothing he can do.
We saw how Diebler's adjustments helped the Buckeyes finish the year strong. Now let's see what he can do with a full year in charge and a roster he's put together.