Jake Diebler hires N.C. State's Joel Justus as associate head coach
COLUMBUS — Jake Diebler replaced Chris Holtmann as Ohio State’s head coach on Feb. 14. Now, he’s found his own replacement to fill the associate head coach opening.
Diebler is bringing aboard North Carolina State assistant Joel Justus to serve that role. Justus has spent the last two seasons with the Wolfpack and was just part of their miraculous nine-game run, first to an ACC Tournament title as a 10 seed and then to the Final Four as an 11 seed.
Justus recruited two of the top-three scorers on this year’s N.C. State squad, guards DJ Horne and Jayden Taylor.
“Joel is someone I have known for a while, and I’m excited to have him join our staff,” Diebler said in a statement Monday. “He is a well-rounded coach with great experience in the development and recruiting spaces, while winning everywhere he’s been.
“His vision for building a program and developing a winning culture is something I was looking for and I can’t wait for him to get started.”
Justus was an assistant coach at Arizona State in 2021-22 before moving to Raleigh to join Kevin Keatts’ N.C. State staff. Before that, he spent seven seasons at Kentucky from 2014-21: one as director of analytics, one as special assistant to the head coach and five as an assistant on John Calipari’s bench.
While at Kentucky, Justus recruited Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Bam Adebayo and Immanuel Quickley. All three ended up being top-25 picks in the NBA Draft.
What’s more, Justus helped Kentucky sign a 2017 recruiting class that featured five top-20 prospects. He also assisted the Wildcats in securing the top class in the 2020 cycle. That year, ESPN named Justus one of the nation’s top 40 coaches under 40 years old.
Justus played his college ball at UNC Wilmington, where he was a team captain as a senior and helped the Seahawks win the CAA twice, booking trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2002 and 2003.
He got his start coaching as an assistant at Elon from 2004-08. Justus spent the next six years as a high school coach, first at Woodberry Forest in Virginia and then at Davidson Day in North Carolina.
Justus is Diebler’s second hire since he took over as head coach. Diebler first added former University of South Carolina Upstate and Tulane head coach Dave Dickerson to the Ohio State bench. Dickerson previously coached seven seasons at Ohio State under Thad Matta, including six as Matta’s associate head coach.
Now-former Buckeyes assistants Brandon Bailey and Jack Owens have both followed Holtmann to DePaul.
