Jake Diebler Says Mike Wells’ Experience Will Help Ohio State Offense And Recruiting

With some of the staffing changes over the offseason, Ohio State head coach Jake Diebler was able to bring on Mike Wells as an assistant coach for the 2026-27 season.

Wells brings extensive experience coaching at the professional level, starting as a video coordinator with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and getting promoted to a full-time assistant with the team in 1999. From there, he went on to work with six NBA teams.

Wells also brings head coaching experience, which is his most recent stop before he was hired at Ohio State. He spent the last two seasons in Australia coaching the Adelaide 36ers, leading them to a finals appearance.

Diebler believes that Wells’ experience and knowledge of the game is going to help take Ohio State basketball to the next level.

“Mike is from Ohio originally and has an impressive resume — one that is going to push me and our program forward in ways that wouldn’t have been able to be accomplished if we had hired a traditional college assistant coach,” Diebler said. “When I had an opportunity to add to our staff, I wanted to add someone who could push us on the offensive side of the ball.

“Our efficiency numbers in the last two years have been good, but we wanted them to be better and I think Mike’s going to really help with that. … He’s going to help us with our offense and player development with his experience in the NBA in that space.”

Wells could also help the Buckeyes off the court. Diebler said that since he brought Wells on staff, recruits have had a positive reaction to the move.

Diebler has already done a solid job recruiting since he was hired as the head coach, bringing in Anthony Thompson, the first five-star recruit Ohio State signed since D’Angelo Russell in the 2014 class.

However, the third-year head coach believes that Wells can help in that area even more.

“It’s a great sell for me when I talk to recruits,” he said. “You have a guy who’s been a part of the player development of some of the best players to ever play the game and a guy who has seen all levels of basketball. … I think he’s also going to help us with international recruiting.

“He’s going to help us realistically in the first couple of months in more of an assistant to the recruiting process role. He’s really smart, really connected, and we’ve learned that quickly. After the first couple of months, he’ll get the chance to go out and see high school players, evaluate that stuff and get a feel for what we’re looking for and he’ll take off from there. I don’t think it’s going to be a long drawn-out process to feel his impact in recruiting.”