With the men’s basketball season two weeks out, Ohio State coach Jake Diebler is leaning on a short list of returners, an ambitious nonconference slate and a clear message about where the program is headed.
Diebler, entering his third season as the Buckeyes’ head coach after his first NCAA Tournament trip last year, sat down Monday with The Lantern’s managing sports editor, Reilly Cahill, to talk through roster construction, the schedule and the season ahead.
One of the biggest pieces of that conversation centered on the two starters Ohio State brings back from last season: guard John Mobley Jr. and forward Amare Bynum. The Buckeyes are replacing a lot around them, but Diebler made it clear he sees value in having those two still in the building.
“I think Amare and John know what we’re about as a program, the toughness, the togetherness, the competitive spirit,” Diebler said.
He said those two have already been useful reference points for the many new faces trying to get up to speed with Ohio State during the offseason.
“Now they can pass that knowledge down, whether it’s to young guys or even older guys from other programs who when they come in here, they realize, man, the standard of work and competitiveness is different here,” Diebler said.
That challenge of blending a largely new roster will be tested right away. Ohio State opens the 2026-27 season against No. 25 BYU on Nov. 2 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and that game is just the first of seven nonconference opponents on the schedule who reached the NCAA Tournament a season ago.
The slate also includes four more AP top 25 teams: No. 4 UConn in Storrs, Connecticut on Nov.
13, No. 24 Vanderbilt at the Schottenstein Center on Nov. 24 and No.
17 Kansas in New York City on Dec. 19.
Diebler said that kind of early gauntlet is exactly the point. Ohio State is going to find out a lot about itself before Big Ten play begins.
“We have to get ready, this league is so good,” Diebler said. “We have a really tough conference schedule.”
He also pointed to the nonconference slate as a chance to help the Buckeyes later if they handle it well.
“NCAA Tournament seed lines have been rewarded for playing a tough schedule, and we felt like we wanted to provide a pathway that at the end of the year we had some games in the nonconference that maybe could help us move up a seed line if we if we’re able to win and play well in those games,” Diebler said.
For Diebler, the mentality doesn’t change no matter the opponent or the venue.
“Anyone, anytime, anywhere,” Diebler said. “I think our guys have that same mentality.”
The other major theme from the interview was last season’s NCAA Tournament breakthrough, and what it means moving forward. Ohio State ended a three-year drought by making March Madness for the first time since 2022, though the run ended with a first-round loss to TCU.
The Buckeyes still have not reached the Sweet 16 since the 2012-13 season, even though the program has 14 all-time appearances at that stage. Diebler said he wants the team aiming back at those heights rather than treating them like some distant memory.
“We’re not going to hide from the past, we’re not going to not talk about the peaks of this program because we’re afraid of it, we want to attack it, we’re trying to push and grow towards that and we celebrate it,” Diebler said. “We put the championships up in our practice gym, that was one of the first things I did when I became head coach because I want our guys to know that this is what we’re striving for.”
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