Scarlet Sunrise: Ohio State grabs No. 2 seed in NIT, will host Cornell in first round
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Ohio State grabs No. 2 seed in NIT, will host Cornell in first round
The Jake Diebler era will officially start in the NIT.
The same day the 37-year-old Ohio State interim head coach was promoted to a full-time position leading the program, the Buckeyes were selected as a 2 seed in the 32-team tournament, which culminates in a championship game on April 4 in Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse, which will also hold the semifinals on April 2. The rest of the NIT games will take place on campus sites.
Ohio State (20-13, 9-11 Big Ten) will host Cornell (22-7, 11-3 Ivy League) Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the first round of NIT action. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2. Whoever wins that Big Ten-Ivy League showdown will play the winner of Virginia Tech-Richmond. If the Buckeyes take care of the Big Red, they will have the opportunity to take on their next opponent at the Schottenstein Center, too, since they’re a higher seed than 3-seed Virginia Tech and unseeded Richmond.
Here’s a look at the complete NIT bracket:
Ohio State reached 20 wins this past week in the Big Ten Tournament with a win over Iowa. The Buckeyes needed another victory to give them a legit shot at making the NCAA Tournament. But eventual tourney champion Illinois came back from 10 down in the second half of the quarterfinals to dash the Buckeyes’ March Madness hopes in a physical yet whistle-happy matchup that saw the Fighting Illini attempt 19 more free throws than Diebler’s squad.
Diebler guided Ohio State to a 6-2 record after replacing seventh-year head coach Chris Holtmann, who was fired on Feb. 14 with four years left on his deal and six regular season games remaining.
That surge earned Diebler his first head coaching job and turned a lost year for the Buckeyes into a memorable and potentially program-altering stretch run.
Ohio State officially announces hire of Jake Diebler as head coach
Ohio State officially announced Diebler’s promotion Sunday.
The school also considered high-profile names such as Xavier’s Sean Miller, Creighton’s Greg McDermott, South Carolina’s Lamont Paris and Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May. McDermott and Paris have recently signed extensions with their current schools. Perhaps most notably, the Buckeyes were in continued contact with May, who led Florida Atlantic to a Final Four last year and has the Owls in the NCAA Tournament again this season.
“Throughout the search, every time we analyzed what was best for the program, our decision kept leading right back to Jake,” said incoming AD Ross Bjork, who currently serves as Ohio State’s senior advisor for intercollegiate athletics and spearheaded the coaching search. “The way he has led the program since February 14 has been exemplary and is only the beginning of what lies ahead for Buckeye Basketball. The future is exciting, and I cannot wait to watch him lead this program.”
For more details, go here.
Setting the table for second week of Buckeyes spring practice
The Buckeyes are back from spring break, and spring practice resumes in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center this week.
Meanwhile, Ohio State is still searching for a new running backs coach. That’s one of several storylines entering the second phase of spring ball. Another is how, if at all, will the quarterback rep distribution change as the competition under center begins to ramp up?
Lettermen Row broke it all down here.
Counting Down
Buckeyes vs. Akron: 166 days
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 257 days
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