After several days of speculation, Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann announced Monday the hiring of assistant coach Jack Owens.
Owens had spent the last five seasons as the head coach at Miami (Ohio) and has spent 22 years in college coaching.
“We are really excited about the addition of Jack Owens,” Holtmann said. “He has shown the ability for a number of years to coach, recruit and develop talent at the highest level. His broad experiences working for excellent coaches, competing for Big Ten championships, and running his own program will prove to be an outstanding asset to our staff. Jack Owens is an outstanding person and an excellent and well-rounded basketball coach. We are thrilled to welcome he and his family to our Buckeye family.”
Owens graduated from Eastern Illinois in 1999 and jumped around several schools as an assistant coach – including his alma mater from 2002-03 -before landing at Purdue under Matt Painter, where he remained from 2008-17. During his time with the Boilermakers, they made seven NCAA tournament appearances in nine seasons and won a Big Ten regular-season championship.
In five years with the RedHawks, Owens was 70-83 and earned a berth in the 2018 CBI, the first postseason appearance for the program since 2011.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to join coach Holtmann’s staff and I’m forward to helping build a championship team,” said Owens. “I’m thankful of coach Holtmann for the opportunity and I can’t wait to get going.”
With assistant coach Jake Diebler taking over former assistant coach Ryan Pedon’s responsibilities and former assistant Tony Skinn off to Maryland, Holtmann is left with one assistant coaching hire to make. This position will reportedly be filled internally by special assistant to the head coach Mike Netti, who has worked under Holtmann at Ohio State and Gardner-Webb.
