Ohio State Hires Former Miami (OH) Head Coach Jack Owens As Assistant Coach

According to several reports, Ohio State and men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann have hired former Miami (Ohio) head coach Jack Owens to fill one of two open assistant coaching positions in the program.

Owens spent the last five seasons as coach of the RedHawks, collecting a 70-83 record. Before his time at Miami, Owens worked under Matt Painter at Purdue for nine seasons, spending three seasons as an assistant coach and six as associate head coach. The Boilermakers made the tournament seven times with Owens on staff.

Before West Lafayette, Owens was an assistant for five seasons as Southern Illinois, and spent time at his alam mater, Eastern Illinois, as well as Barton County Community College and Howard Community College, where he got his start in coaching.

Owens played college basketball at Murray State and Howard Community College before finishing his collegiate career at Eastern Illinois, averaging 11.7 and 6.5 assists per game.

Owens and Miami agreed to part ways following this most recent season in which the RedHawks finished 14-18. Owens was replaced by former Xavier coach Travis Steele.

Owens’ hiring leaves Ohio State with one more assistant coaching hire to make. Former assistant Ryan Pedon left to become the coach at Illinois State and Tony Skinn left to join Kevin Willard’s staff at Maryland. Assistant Jake Diebler took over Pedon’s responsibilities, leaving one opening left for Holtmann to fill.