When Ohio State fired Chris Holtmann on Valentine’s Day, not many people believed Jake Diebler would turn his interim tag into the permanent job.
But he did.
Diebler flipped the season, went 8-3 down the stretch (with wins over Purdue, Nebraska and Michigan State) and just generally did enough to gain the confidence of OSU’s administration. So he got the job. Still, you never really know how these things will go until they start going. But there’s no denying Diebler is off to a great start — first by showing himself to be a competent game-manager over the final six weeks of the season, then by recruiting at a level that suggests Ohio State should be a factor in the Big Ten again soon.
In the first few weeks of April, Diebler kept All-Big Ten guard Bruce Thornton and added All-SEC guard Meechie Johnson from South Carolina and former five-star recruit Aaron Bradshaw from Kentucky. Then, this weekend, he also added Micah Parrish, the 6-foot-6 guard who averaged 9.3 points and 4.1 rebounds as a starter at San Diego State this past season.
Now a possible OSU lineup looks like this:
G: Bruce Thornton
G: Meechie Johnson
G: Micah Parrish
F: Devin Royal
F: Aaron Bradshaw
On paper, that’s nice — and why the Buckeyes are up to No. 15 in Version 8.0 of the 2024-25 CBS Sports preseason Top 25 And 1 college basketball rankings. Other developments that created change in Version 8.0 are Duke adding Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown, Alabama adding Auburn transfer Aden Holloway, Baylor adding Duke transfer Jeremy Roach, Clemson adding Boston College transfer Jaeden Zackery, Florida adding FAU transfer Alijah Martin, Indiana adding Stanford transfer Kanaan Carlyle and Providence adding Chicago State transfer Wesley Cardet Jr. The Blue Devils, Crimson Tide, Bears, Tigers, Gators, Hoosiers and Friars are now ranked No. 6, No. 9, No. 10, No. 13, No. 17, No. 20 and No. 23, respectively, in the Top 25 And 1.