Jake Diebler on Ohio State's transfer portal mindset: 'We're looking at all options'

Recently appointed Ohio State men’s basketball head coach Jake Diebler has his work cut out for him in rebuilding the Buckeyes into a threat for the Big Ten title and a contender for a national championship.

One of the more useful and highly adaptive practices in college sports is acquiring talent out of the NCAA transfer portal. But with the lion’s share of the top players in the portal from college basketball already embedded elsewhere, what will Diebler and his coaching staff do to help fill some of the holes Ohio State still has? During a recent press conference, the Buckeyes head coach revealed his thought process on the matter.

“We’re looking at all options, and one of them is sitting tight, too,” Diebler said. “I think we’re evaluating that. So the one thing I don’t wanna do: we have a really good thing going right now. I don’t wanna rush into something. But we’re evaluating that certainly.”

One of the things Diebler might have to address is the loss of guard, Taison Chapman. The Buckeyes lost him to an injury while training over the summer.

There’s still some time between now and the start of the 2024-25 men’s college basketball season. So, that means Diebler and his coaching staff can continue to develop the players on their roster. However, should a better option find its way into the transfer portal, expect the Ohio State head coach to consider acquiring said talent.

Diebler addresses Chatman’s injury

Few incidents are less brutal to a team than losing a teammate to a season-ending injury, especially before the year truly begins. But Ohio State indeed deals with such a bad beat as Chatman, a sophomore guard for the Buckeyes, tearing his ACL earlier this week.

Jake Diebler addressed the injury and the loss of Chatman to open his press conference on Thursday. All he did was express their ache that he will now miss all of next season in Columbus. That’s certainly so considering he’s a player that also missed time last year as well.

“First and foremost, just, your heart breaks for him because he didn’t get to have the type of year last year that he wanted, that we certainly wanted for him,” said Diebler.