Report: Jake Diebler, Dusty May emerge as frontrunners for Ohio State head coach opening

Ohio State got an early start on its coaching search after the firing of Chris Holtmann. It now appears like it’s going to pay off as the Buckeyes are almost complete with that process with reports of a final two coming out of Columbus.

Adam Jardy of The Columbus Dispatch reported this afternoon that the Buckeyes’ process is in “its final stages”. With that being the case, the two candidates leading the way are Jake Diebler, their current interim, and Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May.

Diebler has done very impressive work over his seven games as head coach to put himself into this conversation. The Buckeyes have gone 7-1 over his interim stint after they had gone 2-9 over Holtmann’s final 11 games. That includes wins over Purdue, Michigan State, and Nebraska to end the regular season. It also includes their 90-78 win over Iowa to move into the Big Ten Quarterfinals this evening against Illinois.

Whether it’s enough to keep their postseason hopes alive past this weekend or not, that surge on its own has been one of the best stories to end this season.

As for May, he has been a hot name on the carousel since taking the Owls to the Final Four. FAU is 125-67 overall in May’s six seasons in Boca Raton. That featured their finish last year where they went 35-4, won the regular season and tournament in Conference USA, and were a game-winner away from playing in the national championship.

In ’23-’24, their first season in the American, Florida Atlantic is 24-7 heading into their conference tournament. Regardless of how that goes, they are then set to make the NCAA Tournament again for the second straight year and third time in program history.

Ohio State went 137-86 (.614) over just over seven years under Holtmann. In that time, the program made four appearances in the NCAA Tournament but never advanced into the second weekend. Since then, during the past two years, the Buckeyes went 30-30 overall. They went through long skids in both campaigns that cost them opportunities in the postseason.

After a month since his removal in Columbus, Holtmann is now set to take over as head coach at DePaul.

Ohio State is currently out of the NCAA Tournament for On3’s James Flecher III. They’re slightly better off in the ‘Next Four Out’ for Joe Lunardi at ESPN. In other words, the Buckeyes’ season will end today unless they advance over the Fighting Illini this evening.

From there, this process could move quickly if the Buckeyes are truly down to only two. It’d then be up to them to zero in on Diebler, someone who has already been on staff for five seasons, or May as their next head coach.