Following Ohio State’s announcement that it has parted ways with head coach Chris Holtmann on Wednesday, the program also announced that associate head coach Jake Diebler will serve as interim coach for the Buckeyes for the remainder of the season.
Diebler, who also served as the head coach earlier this season when Holtmann missed a game with the flu, will serve his first game as interim head coach on Sunday, when Ohio State hosts No. 2 Purdue at Value City Arena. He has been on staff under Holtmann since 2019.
“We tried to keep things mostly the same,” Diebler said after leading Ohio State to a 78-36 win over New Orleans on Dec. 21. “People probably couldn’t notice it a great deal, but there’s real chemistry within our staff. For me, that gave me great comfort. I felt like things flowed really well. We tried to be really organized in timeouts and I felt like, and I think our guys felt like, it was kind of seamless.”
The search for Holtmann’s successor will begin at the end of this season, with incoming athletic director Ross Bjork expected to lead the search.
