Jake Diebler Explains Why This Year’s Ohio State Team Will Be a Must-Watch

The Ohio State Buckeyes will enter the upcoming season with high hopes and head coach Jake Diebler loves where his team is at.

Mar 19, 2026; Greenville, SC, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes Jake Diebler reacts in the first half during a first round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Ohio State certainly took a step in the right direction by advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022.

And now, the Buckeyes want to keep their foot on the gas and race forward, from strength to strength and head coach Jake Diebler believes that his team’s depth will make for an exciting year.

“As far as our roster goes, I love our roster,” Diebler said. “It’s big, versatile, it’s skilled, it’s smart, and I can’t wait to get to work.

“I don’t think we were deep enough last year, and I think that became a real issue with some of the injuries that we dealt with. There’s a lot of factors that go into being able to build some depth, and I think we’ve improved in those areas.”

Those injury issues included Brandon Noel, who missed the majority of the season, and big man Christoph Tilly, who missed a couple of games, which hindered the Buckeyes.

All change and two leaders emerge

Diebler has not been shy about saying that this season, Ohio State will be tailored around John Mobley and Amare Bynum, and he thinks they will be major factors along with bringing in new players.

“For [Bynum] to accomplish his goals and for us to accomplish ours, he’s required to take a significant jump,” Diebler said.

“The reason I’m so confident (he can do that) is I saw the consistency he operated with all year long. We saw, when you look at the last 10 games vs. the first 20 games and where he was as a player, gave me great confidence going into the offseason that, ‘Hey, that’s a building block for us.’ Same thing with John Mobley.”

And addressing new players, Ohio State dived into the portal to bag Justin Pippen from Cal, Curtis Givens III from Memphis and Jimmie Williams from Duquesne. They also brought Andrija Jelavic from Kentucky, in an almost like-for-like replacement for the departed Tilly.

“What we wanted to do this offseason was have more versatility and play faster,” Diebler explained.

“Putting together this roster, those things were important. Also, we needed to get bigger, more positional size at every spot, and I feel like we did that.

“When we were going into this offseason, we wanted to play two — essentially — bigs at all times. We also wanted to bring in someone who could play differently than some of the guys we had on our roster and complement Amare at forward. That shrunk the list of players really quickly.

“What we saw in [Jelavic] is someone that can play center but can also play power forward. He didn’t get to play both positions at Kentucky, but when you look at who he was as a player before that, and what excites us about who he can be next season, he fits that guy who can slide between spots and complements the guys we had on our roster.”

The signings of Pippen, Givens and Williams will also strengthen Ohio State’s perimeter defense, something that was lacking last season, as the Buckeyes aim to continue where they left off last season.