Jake Diebler identifies Ohio State's biggest struggles vs. Minnesota

Ohio State interim head coach Jake Diebler stunned the nation after leading the Buckeyes to a 73-69 upset over No. 2 Purdue in his first game at helm. However, he failed to replicate the same magic in OSU’s 88-79 loss against Minnesota on Thursday. After the loss, Diebler revealed where his team went wrong.

“Our start and our end in the first half was the biggest difference,” Diebler said. “I don’t know the exact number of what that point differential was, but we didn’t start the game well enough and we didn’t finish the half well enough.

“Outside of that, I thought we competed. I thought we played hard. Certainly, we could have made some better decisions here and there, and we needed to rebound better. That was a big key goal in this game. We just didn’t quite execute.”

Minnesota outscored OSU 42-34 in the first half. In contrast, the Buckeyes actually won the final 20 minutes, clawing out one more point than the Golden Gophers in the second half. Nonetheless, it was too little, too late.

The loss certainly couldn’t be blamed on sophomore guard Bruce Thornton, who exploded for a team-high 25 points and six assists while shooting 10-14 from the field. Jamison Battle did his part too, adding 21 points in the Buckeyes valiant effort.

Of course, one loss isn’t the end of the world for the Buckeyes, especially against a team like Minnesota. The Golden Gophers have won five of their last seven and were the favorites against OSU. With four games remaining in the regular season, Diebler will look to finish his interim campaign strong.

What’s next at Ohio State?

The move to fire former head coach Chris Holtmann was not only surprising since Ohio State is in the middle of its season, but because OSU athletic director Gene Smith is in his final year. Smith claimed he will not be involved in the hiring of the next head coach and will defer to OSU’s next AD, Ross Bjork.

“I’m going to help Jake [Diebler] with that and help navigate it and when Ross [Bjork] gets here,” Smith said. “He will share with me his plan for the search. I’ll be there to assist him and be very much a part of it.”

Going 137-84 as Ohio State head coach since he was hired in 2017, Holtmann had tasted success for a whole in Columbus. Other than the canceled 2020 NCAA Tournament, Holtmann led Ohio State to the NCAA Tournament during his first four full seasons leading the Buckeyes’ program.

Holtmann also led Ohio State to 20-win seasons during his first five seasons, but could not pass that mark in either of his last two years on campus. When Smith decided to fire Holtmann, Ohio State was only above Michigan in the Big Ten standings.

“I just felt like looking at the last couple of games, a few games actually, that this team needed different leadership,” Smith explained. “So I made the change.”