For the 13th consecutive season, Ohio State men’s hoopers will watch from a remote location as the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament plays out.
They might be at home, they might be in Columbus, they might be taking a weekend getaway, but they won’t be in Houston, San Jose, Chicago or Washington, D.C., the locations of this year’s quartet of Sweet 16 games. The Buckeyes haven’t been to a Sweet 16 since Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft guided them to the Elite Eight in Los Angeles in 2013 (feel old? I do). They lost 70-66 to Wichita State to miss out on the school’s potential 12th Final Four appearance.
Ohio State took a step forward as a program by making the NCAA Tournament in its second year under Jake Diebler, the first time the Buckeyes went dancing in four years. But the expectation is not to make the NCAA Tournament, it’s to make runs in the NCAA Tournament. That’s what athletic director Ross Bjork said. That’s what Diebler himself has reiterated.
“We were able to battle through a lot to get to this point, but we're not leaving here satisfied as a program,” Diebler said after Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament loss to TCU on Thursday. “This was a great step for us, but we want more. We're going to fight all offseason up until games start to build that and take it up a level. That's what we're motivated by right now. I think you've got guys in (the locker room) that come back that are motivated by the same thing.”
It’s no secret that Ohio State isn’t working with the same resources as big-time college basketball programs. Football diverts too much of the athletic department’s NIL and revenue-sharing dollars. But semi-regular Sweet 16 runs are a realistic expectation for where the Buckeyes should be, even with those things being noted.
There’s a lot Diebler needs to work on this offseason and into next year if Ohio State wants a shot to reach that echelon in the 2027 Big Dance.
Evaluate Staff
Anyone expecting Diebler to be fired this year will be disappointed.
Ohio State took a step forward as a program in 2025-26, as rough as the TCU loss was. Five-star prospect Anthony Thompson is on his way. First-round exits in the NCAA Tournament aren’t acceptable long-term, but for now, progress is progress.
This brief section pertains more to the Buckeyes’ assistant coaching staff. Non-coordinating assistant coaching roles aren’t precisely defined, and I’m not going to call for folks to be fired without knowing who’s exactly responsible for what. But Diebler must evaluate if each of his assistants is maximizing the talent on Ohio State’s roster. Given the team’s consistent defensive rebounding and interior defensive issues in his two seasons, an upgrade to coach OSU’s bigs might be the top thing to evaluate in that regard.
That’s just in terms of roles already in the program, though. Given Diebler’s whiffs in the transfer portal thus far – more on that in a paragraph – the true top staff change to consider is whether the Buckeyes should hire a general manager, one with a lot of say in the talent evaluation and roster-building process. If Ohio State retains them, it has the pieces to get better in 2026-27, even in a post-Bruce Thornton world, but it has to build around those parts properly.
For the Love of God, Get the Right Transfers
Two years in, here is the complete list of Diebler’s transfer portal acquisitions:
| YEAR | POS | PLAYER | SCHOOL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | C | AARON BRADSHAW | KENTUCKY |
| 2024 | G | QUES GLOVER | KANSAS STATE |
| 2024 | G | MEECHIE JOHNSON | SOUTH CAROLINA |
| 2024 | G | MICAH PARRISH | SAN DIEGO STATE |
| 2024 | F | SEAN STEWART | DUKE |
| 2025 | G | GABE CUPPS | INDIANA |
| 2025 | F | BRANDON NOEL | WRIGHT STATE |
| 2025 | F | JOSH OJIANWUNA | BAYLOR |
| 2025 | C | CHRISTOPH TILLY | SANTA CLARA |
Nine players. One, Micah Parrish, met or exceeded expectations at Ohio State. That’s an 11.1% hit rate. Unacceptable, unsustainable and if it keeps up, it will be Diebler’s undoing.
Meechie Johnson played 10 games, shot 35.6% from the field and returned to South Carolina after sitting out the rest of the season for mental health struggles. Aaron Bradshaw once showed a glimmer of what made him a five-star high school prospect in an 11-point game against his former Kentucky squad, but he mostly fell on his face as a 7-footer who averaged a meager 2.7 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game while playing some horrid defense.
Those flaws overlap with those of Christoph Tilly, though he gave Ohio State significantly more on the offensive end and held his starting center position throughout the year. His 11 points and 2.3 assists per game in 2025-26 were nice enough, but 4.7 rebounds per game from a starting 7-foot center is laughable. TCU forwards David Punch and Xavier Edmonds turned Tilly’s chest into a welcome mat whenever they wanted points at the rim, as did many Big Ten bigs.
Tilly’s greatest strength was that he gave Ohio State an extra guard at center. He fell short of what the Buckeyes needed him to be, though, because he played center like a guard. He’s still the second-best of Diebler’s nine portal acquisitions thus far in his coaching career.
Christoph Tilly underwhelmed at center in 2025-26, but is still the second-best transfer Jake Diebler has signed in his two-year career. Photo credit: Alex Martin/Greenville News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Ohio State needs a rim protector and rebounding ace at the 5. It hasn’t had one since Felix Okpara transferred to Tennessee ahead of Diebler’s first full season. Josh Ojianwuna might be that, but after missing one and a half seasons with a devastating knee injury, you can’t bank on that. Not when a run in the Big Dance is the goal.
A proven starting guard to pair with John Mobley Jr. is of equal priority this offseason. Mobley can play point guard, but ideally, the Buckeyes collect a transfer point guard and allow him to play his more natural shooting guard.
Of course, that takes for granted that Ohio State retains Mobley in this era of NIL and transfer portal chaos. Lots of tampering schools will surely be after him and rising sophomore sensation Amare Bynum. Devin Royal, too, although with Thompson coming in at small forward and Bynum at power forward, the Buckeyes will have to solve how Royal fits on the roster.
Beyond two potential new starters, the Buckeyes also need Big Ten-caliber depth pieces out of the portal. A lack of bench production bit Ohio State several times this year, including against the Horned Frogs, where OSU’s backups played a combined 17 minutes and managed three points. Bruce Thornton, Mobley, Bynum and Royal all played 35 minutes or more.
Jimmys and Joes still trump X’s and O’s in sports. Ohio State needs more Jimmys and Joes via the portal if it wants better results in 2026-27.
X’s and O’s
Relitigating whether Ohio State should have hired Diebler full-time after his interim stint in February and March 2024 is an empty endeavor at this stage. Hiring a first-time head coach who was the top assistant for Chris Holtmann, the man the Buckeyes just fired, probably wasn’t the best idea.
Diebler’s here, though. He got better as a head coach from year one to year two. Laying into officials when needed, somewhat better plays out of timeouts, he built a better team overall. But there are still clear flaws in his game management and the play of his teams that need to be corrected, beyond the above discussion on roster construction.
Ohio State got better in after-timeout situations than in Diebler’s first year – in the half-court, anyway. Where it fell flatter than pancake batter with too much water is in executing full-court plays at the end of halves and, in segments, breaking the full-court press. The greatest example is, obviously, its failed last-second shot against TCU.
TCU gets the win over Ohio State
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace) March 19, 2026
What a game to start the NCAA Tournament weekend
No clue what the Buckeyes were doing with that play design pic.twitter.com/900Kt3yjcq
Having any player, even Thornton, take a handoff the full 94 feet away from his basket when there’s only 4.3 seconds to work with is an ill-fated idea. Missed last-second shots also cost the Buckeyes in their losses to Nebraska and North Carolina, wins that could have bumped them above the No. 8 seed line that saw them face TCU.
Overall consistency is another thing to address for Diebler this offseason – see Ohio State requiring a 15-point second-half comeback to pull even with the Horned Frogs as evidence. Part of that is inherent to college basketball, but the tourney game showed a few areas where Diebler still needs to grow as he enters just his third year as a head coach.
Now it’s time to attack the solutions. First-round NCAA Tournament exits are not something the Buckeyes should tolerate long-term – it’s only a step for now.
“I've got to take some time personally to reflect and go over what we did since Sunday,” Diebler said. “Go over it. Every detail. How we spent our time, what we did on the court, what we did in the hotel, all of it. How we traveled, when we practiced. I want to go through day by day and hour by hour and see, are there things that maybe we would have done differently or things that we could do better? But, absolutely. Our players need to grow from this and I do, too. There's no question.”
