When Bjork was named Ohio State’s new athletic director on Jan. 16, a position he will officially step into when Gene Smith retires on July 1, his first major decision came quickly: Who will lead the OSU men’s basketball team going forward?

On Feb. 14, following a loss at Wisconsin, the Buckeyes fired Chris Holtmann. A little over a month later, Ohio State promoted Diebler from interim coach to its full-time head coach, a decision Bjork said was quite easy after seeing what the former Ohio State assistant did on and off the court and the praise and cheers he received from others.

“The togetherness of the team that he brought to the dance floor was about culture, energy, chemistry, reliability to the players. So every time we checked him against other candidates, we just kept coming back and saying ‘This is a no-brainer,'” Bjork said in an interview with Big Ten Network. “And then you would take the fan response. Every time we played in The Schottenstein Center, got a standing ovation. … The whole place would go crazy.”

Those comments echoed what Bjork said previously when Ohio State promoted Diebler in March.

“Throughout the search, every time we analyzed what was best for the program, our decision kept leading right back to Jake,” Bjork said when Diebler was promoted to the full-time gig. “The way he has led the program since February 14 has been exemplary and is only the beginning of what lies ahead for Buckeye Basketball. The future is exciting, and I cannot wait to watch him lead this program.”

While being from Ohio, having a legendary high school basketball coach as a dad and one of Ohio State’s best-ever 3-point shooters as a brother played a small role in the decision, Diebler’s history on the recruiting trail was something that Bjork and Co. kept going back to.

During his time as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt, Diebler served as the lead recruiter for Darius Garland, now an NBA All-Star with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was Holtmann’s lead recruiter before Holtmann was fired, championing the effort to sign the nation’s eighth-ranked recruiting classes in both 2022 and 2023.

“Really, if you look at Jake’s history, being an Ohio guy, that means a lot,” Bjork told BTN. “Every time I kept checking sort of the recruiting landscape, I’d run into people that would say ‘Oh, Coach Diebler has deep ties.’ Whether it’s the state of Ohio, whether it’s AAU basketball. When he was at Vanderbilt, he recruited kids at a level that maybe he shouldn’t have, and so, just understanding his recruiting ties.”