Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork has been firm in his support of head men’s basketball head coach Jake Diebler since the Buckeyes’ disappointing end of the 2024-25 season, consistently saying that the rising second-year coach is the right man for the job and has the right plan in place to lead the program back to relevance.
In an interview with Eleven Warriors during Ohio State’s athlete award banquet on Monday, Bjork did not stray from those sentiments, but he did say that he wants the program to be more consistent and live up to what he thinks is a high standard set by Buckeye men’s hoops in previous eras.
“We don’t want to tiptoe around Ohio State basketball,” Bjork said. “I’m challenging our staff to think of it differently internally. We’re not going to tiptoe around Ohio State basketball. We know what the standard is. We have blue-blood elements in our history, and we need to be more consistent.”
Bjork — who hired Diebler last spring over more established coaches like Dusty May (Michigan) and John Calipari (Arkansas) following his strong showing as interim head coach — did admit that he thinks the administration needs to do a better job at helping Diebler succeed in his role, whether that be creating a better gameday atmosphere at Value City Arena or improving the messaging around the program.
“I think with football, obviously, we have such a great foundation. With basketball, we really need a strategic approach with Jake at the helm, so we need to help him with some of the messaging,” Bjork said. “Obviously, roster retention and building is part of that. Gameday atmosphere in (Value City Arena) — you can’t really downsize (the arena), but how do we make it a tighter feel? Is that lighting? Is that seating sections that we look at? How do we get the students more involved? What’s our messaging around the program?”
Regardless of how they help out Diebler and his program, Bjork maintained that Ohio State has the capability to be a national contender and has shown in the past that he could get it done.
One way they can achieve that is by digging into their abundant financial resources. According to a new study by Indiana University Columbus (not Ohio) finance professor Ryan Brewer, Ohio State ranks fourth in all of college basketball in financial value at $262 million, behind just North Carolina ($378 million), Duke ($370 million) and Indiana ($279 million).
Bjork did not get into specifics about the resources offered to the men’s basketball program, but he did point to another key for Diebler and his staff moving forward, that being their ability to bring in the best high school players from both Ohio and the surrounding area.
Diebler is on the right track in that aspect, bringing in the No. 1 player out of Ohio in the 2025 class, Cleveland Richmond Heights four-star shooting guard Dorian Jones (6-4, 160) and the second -and-fourth-best prospects in the state for 2026 — Cleveland Garfield Heights four-star point guard Marcus Johnson (6-1, 175) and Columbus Upper Arlington three-star power forward Alex Smith (6-9, 195).
“I remember talking to (former Ohio State men’s basketball coach) Thad Matta at one point in time, and I said, ‘Hey, what was the secret sauce at Ohio State?’ He goes ‘Six hours. If we got the best players within a six-hour radius, we’re a Final Four team,’” Bjork said.
