Ohio
Here’s what we learned from Ohio State basketball’s Jake Diebler at Big Ten media day
Watch Ohio State’s Jake Diebler talk Bruce Thornton at Big Ten media day
Ohio State coach Jake Diebler talks about Bruce Thornton at Big Ten media day in Rosemont, Illinois, on Oct. 3, 2024.
ROSEMONT, Ill. – He took the stage first, leading a three-man Big Ten coaching entourage onto the makeshift television set.
Entering his first season as the Ohio State men’s basketball coach, Jake Diebler walked onto the risers ahead of Iowa coach Fran McCaffery and Northwestern coach Chris Collins. For a little more than 15 minutes, the three coaches sat for a panel discussion about their seasons, their jobs and, in Diebler’s case, his family.
The first question to the three was directed to Diebler: what’s it like now having a family of six? Diebler and his wife, Jordyn, welcomed a baby boy in early July, their fourth child.
“It’s been good,” Diebler said. “By number four you’re used to not sleeping as much. No, we’re blessed. Everybody is healthy. Our kids are having a great time. They’ve enjoyed being around the team and spending some time in the gym.”
It was an easy way to start a whirlwind of a day for Diebler and the Buckeyes inside the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. There was the four-person live chat, interviews with multiple national radio shows and dozens of quick, informal conversations caught in the hallways with fellow Big Ten coaches and players. It’s a quick business trip for the Buckeyes, who flew in Thursday morning and were slated to fly back home in the evening.
Ohio State, picked eighth in the unofficial official Big Ten preseason media poll conducted jointly by The Dispatch and The Indianapolis Star, is in some ways as much an unknown as anyone else in the newly expanded, 18-team conference.
Here’s what else Diebler talked about.
Bruce Thornton lauded for his work ethic
In the televised chat aired live on the conference’s network, Diebler sat with McCaffery on his right and Collins on his left. As each coach was invariably asked about his roster, Diebler got a question about third-year guard Bruce Thornton and the leadership he provides the Buckeyes.
“Bruce isn’t an every-day guy: he is an every-rep guy,” Diebler said. “Every single day in practice, doesn’t matter the drill. If you are going live, if you are not going live, he goes hard every time. To have that in your program, there’s so much value around that, and he sets the standard for us of what it means to work.”
Thornton is a two-time Ohio State captain and one of the team’s two player representatives at media day. He is joined by fifth-year guard Meechie Johnson Jr., a former Buckeye who transferred to South Carolina and played there for two years before returning for his final season.
“We’ve been intentional about who we’ve invited into our family,” Diebler said. “We have a group of great guys. Now we have to build that chemistry in between the lines.”
Ohio State Buckeyes: Join the Ohio State Sports Insider text group with Bill Rabinowitz, Joey Kaufman Adam Jardy
Buckeyes are healthy as practice continues
Illness has hit Ohio State’s early practice portions, but Diebler said the Buckeyes are navigating the start of the fall pretty well.
“(We’re) mostly healthy,” Diebler said. “We’ve had some sickness go through the program a little bit. In talking to other coaches, that seems to be going around, but for the most part we’re moving forward mostly healthy.”
This time last year, Ohio State was without freshmen Taison Chatman and Austin Parks as both dealt with preseason injuries. That missed time would hinder their development, affecting their ability to impact the Buckeyes when the season began.
This year, at this point, nobody is in a similar situation after a summer that saw multiple players miss time here and there with minor injuries.
“As of right now, we’re going to have everybody available and I think we’ll have some consistent time to build some chemistry with the whole team together,” Diebler said. “We didn’t have that this summer. We’re now at a point where we can scrimmage against each other and try some different lineups. We’re heading in the right direction.”
Diebler likes Ohio State’s backcourt depth
Thornton, a preseason first-team all-Big Ten pick, and Johnson, a second-team all-SEC pick at South Carolina last year, will anchor Ohio State’s backcourt and provide leadership for this year’s team.
While they will play important roles for the Buckeyes, Diebler said they are part of a deep backcourt he will be relying on.
“I’ve been impressed with how organic and natural that chemistry (between Thornton and Johnson) has seemed,” Diebler said. “That’s been the case honestly for our whole backcourt. We have a great deal of depth in our backcourt. Micah Parrish, Ques Glover, John Mobley. We’ve got depth that’s a real strength for us, and the chemistry within that group has been impressive.”
Ques Glover an early surprise
One of the final additions to the 2024-25 roster has proven to be among Diebler’s biggest pleasant surprises in the early going. Asked what has surprised him, Diebler pointed to the play of Glover, a sixth-year player who was added to the roster when Taison Chatman was lost for the season with a torn ACL.
In 99 career games, Glover has averaged 10.3 points while shooting 46.1% from the floor and 30.6% from 3-point range. He played two years at Florida, transferred to Samford for two more, transferred to BYU, left during the summer, transferred to Kansas State and then missed the 2023-24 season due to injury.
“I’ve been surprised with Ques Glover and his ability to score,” Diebler said.
Two other transfers have been impactful, Diebler said. Ohio State signed Kentucky’s Aaron Bradshaw and Duke’s Sean Stewart, two McDonald’s All-Americans in 2023 who played sparingly for their blue-blood programs before transferring.
Ohio State Buckeyes: Before Ohio State, Aaron Bradshaw and Sean Stewart starred in McDonald’s All-American game
“I also think as Aaron Bradshaw and Sean Stewart have been in our program now for some time, (with) their lack of experience I didn’t fully know how consistent they would be,” Diebler said. “I think they’re developing that consistency. Certainly two very talented players that will play together, but they’re growing in their consistency and I think that really helps the ceiling of our team.”
ajardy@dispatch.com
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Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
Have a question for Just Askin’? Email us.
The Just Askin’ series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, except maybe Google.
Do you have a question you want answered? Send it to us at justaskin@enquirer.com, ideally with Just Askin’ in the subject line.
It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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