Jake Diebler explains why Ohio State is NCAA Tournament worthy

Ohio State is 5-1 since the shift to Jake Diebler as head coach which, in turn, has brought their record back to 19-12. Now, with the Big Ten Tournament ahead of the Buckeyes, consideration for the NCAA Tournament is at the very least back on the table as far as a discussion.

Diebler spoke about his team’s case to go dancing in a press conference to start the week. He said that Ohio State certainly has an argument to be in the field considering their best wins and their recent run of play over the last month.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” said Diebler.

“I’m no expert on all the metrics that go into making that decision. But I would think a couple of our top wins would stack up against anybody in the country. We’ve now stacked together some road wins. Also, the momentum that we have and the way we’ve been playing lately?” said Diebler. “I think there’s a lot of positives that, you know, would help our case.”

The turnaround with Diebler on the sidelines in place of Chris Holtmann is the basis of their newfound debate. Upon Holtmann’s firing, Ohio State was just 14-11 overall after a 12-2 start. That was because they had lost 9 of 11 in conference play from January 6th to February 13th.

In the three weeks since then, Diebler has nearly tripled that win total with five wins in six games as the interim. That run includes a miraculous win over Purdue in his very first game. It also features a victory at Michigan State and over Nebraska as part of a current four-game win streak.

That improvement alone should represent a ton to the selection committee in Dieber’s opinion.

“For up to me, it would mean everything. I’d make it mean everything right now,” Diebler said. “I would hope that that’s certainly taken into consideration.”

“I understand it’s a full season. But, yeah, if you could give me a seat? I’d stand on the table and make sure they knew that it was the most important thing,” said Diebler.

As the No. 10 seed, Ohio State will play No. 7 Iowa in the second round of the league tournament. If they were to win, it would set up a matchup with Illinois, the No. 2 seed, in the quarterfinals.

On3’s James Fletcher III has Ohio State having more to do in order to get back on the right side of the bubble in his bracket. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi agrees as he has the Buckeyes needing to win more than one game in Minneapolis to get in the picture.

Still, considering all things, Ohio State is in a far better spot than they were in at this time last month. That speaks volumes of the work Diebler has already done with them having at least one more chance to shoot their shot in time for Selection Sunday.

“I would absolutely say that we deserve to be in the conversation,” said Diebler. “That includes the total body of work.”