New Ohio State basketball coach Jake Diebler is gathering his coaching staff, but one of his favored candidates will not be joining him due to an unusual cause.
Diebler’s brother Jon, who played for Ohio State and is the program’s all-time top three-point shooter, will not be joining the Buckeyes’ coaching staff even though Jake tried to make it happen. The school’s legal department stepped in and stopped the hire for an odd reason.
Under Ohio law, public officials are forbidden from using their position to hire family members, via Tony Gerdeman of Buckeye Huddle. In other words, Jake Diebler cannot recruit his brother as an assistant according to the state’s nepotism regulations.
Jake Diebler has never held a coaching job before, so things might have been different had that not been the case. The Diebler brothers are claimed to be “frustrated” with the ruling.
Diebler got the position after taking over as interim coach and guided the squad to an 8-3 record down the stretch. Things may have perhaps been quite different had he not finished so strongly.
