Ross Bjork believes Jake Diebler met expectations in his first season as Ohio State's men's basketball coach.
On Wednesday, Eleven Warriors obtained Bjork’s annual performance review for Diebler. In the document, Bjork gave Diebler an assessment of “Meets Expectations” for his first full year as head coach and said Ohio State will support Diebler "with all the tools to compete as we move forward."
“Coach Diebler continues to provide great leadership and energy for our basketball program while continuing to learn and grow in his role as a head coach,” Bjork wrote. “We all understand what he inherited and have worked with Coach on making sure we have the right resources and support to get our program back in contention for (Big Ten) titles and long runs in the NCAA tournament. Coach Diebler has put together the right staff for success and all of the investments will continue to pay off in recruiting, style of play, and success on the court.
“Focusing on high level recruiting, player development, roster retention, revenue share cap management, academic success, and having good young men in the program will be keys to success. As Coach continues to grow in his role and adapts to the evolution of college athletics, he will continue to garner all the necessary attributes of being a great head coach and what it takes to compete at this level.”
Diebler took over as Ohio State’s interim head coach in 2023-24 when then-athletic director Gene Smith fired Chris Holtmann amid his seventh year as leader of the program. Diebler led the Buckeyes to an 8-3 finish with a run to the NIT quarterfinals that season, leading Bjork to hire him as Ohio State’s full-time coach.
In his first full season as leader of the Buckeyes, Diebler led Ohio State to a 17-15 record with a 9-11 mark in Big Ten competition. The Buckeyes missed the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season and elected not to participate in the College Basketball Crown.
Despite Ohio State falling short of its goals in Diebler’s first season, he wrote in his performance review that the Buckeyes took important steps forward in 2024-25.
“It was important for us to take a step forward in year one of our program and we did,” Diebler wrote in his review. “This year provided growth for me and our program as we navigated a great deal of adversity throughout. Improvements in offensive and defensive efficiency, pace of play, and NET rankings were achieved and position us to be better next season in a significant way. We were able to set the foundational culture this year in a way that provides a pathway for a real jump in years to come. That same culture and this staff were the reasons we positioned ourselves at the end of the year to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Disappointed we did not reach that goal, but we were able to have a great off-season regarding roster management and player development.
“Retention was critical moving forward and was a huge success for our program this spring. That same culture also helped our program achieve one of the best GPAs in recent program memory with a cumulative score of 3.23. My commitment and our program’s commitment to return Ohio State Basketball to the level of our tradition’s peak remains the mission. Year one was a positive step but we will still have work to do.”
Ohio State describes its “meets expectations” rating as one that “most employees can expect to receive.” The performance review notes that Ohio State is “an organization of high expectations and this rating should be celebrated.”
