Ohio State is set to face Valparaiso, where Diebler played, on Dec. 17.
Jake Diebler’s journey to becoming a head coach at a power conference program was expedited a bit compared to other coaches, but you can hardly say he skipped the line.
Before becoming the head man at Ohio State, he was an assistant on Chris Holtmann’s staff for five seasons. Before that, he was an assistant coach at Vanderbilt for three years under Bryce Drew. For the three seasons before Vanderbilt he was at Ohio State, serving as video coordinator under Thad Matta.
But prior to all of that, Jake Diebler was a product of Valparaiso University. He played for the Crusaders from 2005-09, finishing with 160 career steals as well as finishing among the league leaders in three-pointers made and minutes per game his senior season.
Diebler has spoken about his college career before, telling Land-Grant Holy Land this fall that he considered quitting after his freshman season, when he averaged 1.1 points and played just four minutes per game. He thought he could walk on at a larger school somewhere or play more at a smaller school.
But after a very brief conversation with his father Keith — a longtime high school basketball coach himself — Diebler decided to stick it out. He now says that his freshman year at Valpo was one of the most important years of his life, and the best thing for him.
Once his playing days were finished, Diebler coached at Valpo under both Homer and Bryce Drew for four seasons. It was the first coaching position for the son of a coach who at one point refused to consider coaching as a profession because he didn’t want to follow in his dad’s footsteps. After playing for so many great coaches and seeing the impact they have on their players, he changed his mind.
That’s why Ohio State’s game against Valparaiso on Dec. 17 is going to feel so odd for Diebler.
“I follow that program closely for obvious reasons.” Diebler said at Ohio State’s media day Oct. 8. “It’ll be a weird feeling probably before that game, but once the ball is thrown up, it’ll be back to normal.”
Not only will he be facing the school he graduated from in 2009, Diebler will also be facing one of his former colleagues from Valpo, Roger Powell. Powell played collegiately at Illinois from 2001-05 and had a cup of tea in the NBA with the Utah Jazz, but was eventually hired to be on Bryce Drew’s staff at Valpo in 2011.
Powell coached with Diebler at Valparaiso from 2011-13, until Diebler left to take the video coordinator position at Ohio State. But when Drew took the Vanderbilt job in 2016, he brought Powell with him and hired Diebler as a full-time assistant, bringing the two coaches back together for a second stint on Drew’s staff together. Diebler and Powell remained at Vanderbilt for three seasons until Drew was fired in 2019 after going 0-18 in SEC play.
All in all, Diebler coached alongside Powell for five seasons — two at Valpo and three at Vanderbilt. Diebler and Powell remain close, which will make Ohio State’s tilt against the Beacons (the team’s name changed from Crusaders to Beacons in 2021) even more meaningful for Diebler.
“Roger Powell is a close friend of mine,” Diebler said. “I hope they win every game but one next year. I think Roger’s going to do a really good job, he’s got some good pieces coming back.”
Diebler said that he didn’t go into the offseason looking to get Valpo on Ohio State’s schedule, but as dates started to fill up, the Buckeyes’ options to fill the schedule grew slimmer.
“I don’t think I immediately went into this off-season saying ‘We’ve gotta get Valpo on the schedule,’” Diebler said. “I think it happened organically. He was looking for games, we were looking for games, and it was like ‘Hey let’s see if the dates make sense.’ It wasn’t one of the first games we locked in, and when you start to get down to the end of putting a schedule together, dates become so important. And so it aligned that we were able to do this.”
Photo by Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Ironically enough, in 2017, Chris Holtmann’s seventh game as head coach of the Buckeyes came against Butler — the program he led for three seasons before taking the Ohio State job. The Buckeyes lost that game in overtime, 67-66.
Diebler’s 11th game as head coach of the Buckeyes will be against his alma mater and the place he began his coaching career. Ideally, that game will end differently than that 2017 game against the Bulldogs did for Holtmann.
Diebler credits Valparaiso and the people there for helping get him to where he is now, but on Dec. 17, it’ll be his job to beat his former colleague and deliver a victory for the program he now leads.