Ross Bjork hadn’t even taken over full-time when he was given his first major task as Ohio State’s athletic director. On Feb. 14, 2024, Gene Smith made one of his final big decisions in the role, choosing to fire men’s basketball head coach Chris Holtmann.
Despite his transitional period, during which he was going to shadow Smith, it became Bjork’s responsibility to find the Buckeyes’ next head coach.
From the outside, it probably looked like Bjork took the easy way out by hiring Holtmann’s assistant Jake Diebler after he led the Scarlet and Gray to a 5-1 finish to the regular season, including an upset over No. 2 Purdue, and reached the quarterfinals of the NIT as interim coach. However, Bjork was careful during the process, watching plenty of college basketball and talking to other coaches and former Ohio State players before deciding to make Diebler the full-time head coach.
It was a risk. Diebler had never been a head coach before, and unlike Buckeye football coach Ryan Day, he wasn’t taking over a program that was already near the top and full of talent.
In Diebler, Bjork recognized many traits he saw in other top coaches, just without the experience to support them. Growing up in Ohio, watching his brother play for the Scarlet and Gray, and working his way up from a graduate assistant at Ohio State under Thad Matta, Diebler understood what it meant to be a Buckeye and was focused on getting the program back on track.