This year is about to finish as an unmitigated failure for the Ohio State basketball program. After losing in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament to Iowa, who fired their coach afterwards, the Buckeyes will likely be left out of the NCAA Tournament.
When Jake Diebler was hired as the head coach this offseason, he talked about the importance of making the NCAA Tournament. He understands that the Buckeyes have too many resources to not be making the Tournament every single year. He failed in his first year in large part because of what he did in the offseason.
Ohio State was horrible at closing games. A big reason for that was the players they got in the transfer portal, who were supposed to be a big part of the team, were not good. Jake Diebler needs to be better at identifying talent in the portal for next season.
The Ohio State basketball program needs to do better in the transfer portal
Some of the additions they made in the transfer portal were horrible. Take Aaron Bradshaw, for instance. Bradshaw was a former five-star recruit who transferred in after a year at Kentucky. He was supposed to upgrade the center position. He actually was a massive downgrade.
Bradshaw averaged just six points and 2.7 rebounds as a seven-foot player. Diebler brought him in to be the starter, and they were going to keep Felix Okpara as the backup. Okpara transferred and has become one of the key players for Tennessee. They should have kept him.
Meechie Johnson disappeared after just ten games once they brought him back to Columbus. He was a waste of NIL money. Ques Glover seemed to be a walking turnover and shot just 34.5% from the field. The Buckeyes only got useful play this year from Micah Parrish out of the transfer portal.
Diebler has to do a better job of bringing in talent that can actually help his team next year. He must keep Devin Royal, Bruce Thornton, and Juni Mobley. Quite frankly, Diebler has a lot of work to do in his second season.