CBB insider reveals if Ohio State HC Jake Diebler is on hot seat

Ohio State Buckeyes head basketball coach Jake Diebler is heading into a critical stretch of games.

The Buckeyes are firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble. At the time of this writing, they are 17-10. They play the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City on Wednesday evening. Even if they beat Iowa, they're still looking ahead to games against No. 8 Purdue, at Penn State and against Indiana to end the regular season.

There's, of course, the Big Ten men's basketball tournament to consider as well, but right now, Diebler's squad is firmly in limbo — and that's win or lose against Iowa.

Diebler is only in his third season as head coach at Ohio State, but ESPN's Jeff Borzello believes he could be in trouble if the Buckeyes find themselves on the outside looking in at the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

"If they [the Buckeyes] don't hear their name on Selection Sunday, that will be two years without a tournament appearance for Diebler, four years for the program as a whole. The latest word out of Columbus is that he's probably safe for another season, but that could depend on what happens over the next three weeks," Borzello recently wrote. 

Perhaps Diebler's hot seat is not on fire, but it's absolutely hot if three bad weeks could lead to him losing his job.

He could, of course, turn things around for Ohio State and lead them to the NCAA Tournament. From there, anything could happen.

There's also a real-world scenario where the Buckeyes lose out on the regular season and don't make it far in the Big Ten Tournament, though.

Ohio State Buckeyes could be eyeing T.J. Otzelberger

If that's the case, the Buckeyes could very well pull the plug on him. That may happen, either way, if the Buckeyes believe they can steal T.J. Otzelberger from the Iowa State Cyclones.

In the same report, Borzello drew a connection between Otzelberger and OSU.

"Otzelberger has established himself as one of the elite coaches in college basketball, and he signed a new contract in December 2024 with a restructured buyout that makes him potentially attainable. If Ohio State were to open, there's reason to believe the Buckeyes would look to gauge Otzelberger's interest," Borzello wrote.

Otzelberger currently has Iowa State at 24-4 and ranked No. 4 in all of college basketball.