Chris Holtmann, the former head coach of the Ohio State men’s basketball team, was fired on Feb. 14, 2024 after serving as the Buckeyes’ head coach for seven seasons. Hired in 2017, Holtmann replaced former Ohio State men’s basketball coach Thad Matta. At the beginning of his tenure with the Buckeyes, he led the team to a 25-9 record (15-3 in the Big Ten) and went to back-to-back NCAA tournaments. However, OSU lost a step in the 2022 season, going 16-19 and 5-15 in the Big Ten.
The team started the 2023 season on a high note, going 12-2 to start off the year, but soon dropped to second-to-last place in the Big Ten standings after another tumultuous January. The team has not won a road game since Jan. 1 2023. They are 18-29 in the month of January over the past six seasons. Ohio State has hired Jake Diebler as interim head coach to finish the season until the university decides on a new head coach, but a question still remains: who should be the next head coach of the Buckeyes?
Jake Diebler
Photo Cred: SI
Diebler served as an assistant coach for the Buckeyes for three years, beginning in 2019, before being promoted to assistant head coach prior to the 2021-2022 season. Jake helped in beginning the rebuilding process for the Buckeyes by bringing in players like Bruce Thornton, Roddy Gayle Jr., and Felix Okpara after an unfavorable 2022-2023 season, which saw the Buckeyes finishing second to last in the Big Ten. He also helped mentoring 2014 NCAA Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Craft and D’Angelo Russell, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft and 2015 First-Team All-American. Diebler earned Academic All-League Honors and was named to the Horizon League Academic Honor Roll during his undergraduate career, graduating from Valparaiso in May 2009.
Sean Miller
Photo Cred: USA Today
Miller is currently serving as the head coach of Xavier’s men’s basketball program, who have gone 13-12 on the year and are 7-7 in the Big East conference. In the 2022-23 season, Miller led the Musketeers to a 27-10 record, the best record Xavier has posted since the 2017-18 season, where they went 29-6 under Chris Mack. The team also averaged the most points since the 2017-18 season with 80.9 points scored per game and went 15-5 in the Big East Conference. The Musketeers ranked #13 last year at the end of the season and entered the NCAA tournament as a No. 3 seed. They lost to the No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns 83-71 NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinal.
Lamont Paris
Photo Cred: On3.com
Paris is currently the head coach of South Carolina’s men’s basketball program, who have gone 21-5 on the year and 9-4 in the SEC. They are ranked #11 nationally and third in the SEC rankings behind Tennessee and Alabama. While Lamont struggled in his first season with the Gamecocks (2022-23), putting up an 11-21 record, he managed to turn the Gamecocks around at the beginning of this season, winning eight straight games before finally losing to a top-25 team in the Clemson Tigers, 72-67.
Paris also has led the Gamecocks to scoring an average of 72.6 points per game while only allowing 64.0 points per game, ranking in the top 35 of NCAA men’s basketball teams. The Gamecocks also rank in the top-25 in the NCAA for turnovers committed, turning the ball over only 9.9 times per game, whereas the Buckeyes turn the ball over 10.5 times per game, landing them right at 50th in the country for least turnovers committed.
Other names to look for are Nate Oats from Alabama, Dusty May from Florida Atlantic, Greg McDermott from Creighton, and Porter Moser from Oklahoma. The Buckeyes are also looking at former Ohio State assistant and the current head coach of the Ohio Bobcats, Jeff Boals. Ohio State will ride out with Jake Diebler for the remainder of the season, but will be looking to fill their head coaching vacancy come March.
