Big Ten Basketball: Ranking all 18 head coaches for 2024-25 season

18. Jake Diebler (Ohio State)

Considering he’s only been a head coach for eleven games, it’s easy to say that Diebler has the weakest resume among the current coaches in the Big Ten. He played guard at Valparaiso and was an assistant there under Bryce Drew early in his career. Brother of a former Buckeyes legend, Diebler joined Ohio State’s staff under Thad Matta briefly and later came back under Chris Holtmann in 2019.

For the last five seasons, Diebler served on the Ohio State staff, including a pair of seasons as assistant head coach. Back in February, Holtmann was relieved of his duties and Diebler took over as the interim head coach. An 8-3 finish to the season included several surprising upset wins and a decent run in the NIT, earning Diebler the full-time gig with the Buckeyes. Time will tell if Ohio State made the right decision, though the future is bright for this young coach.

17. Ben Johnson (Minnesota)

A former Big Ten player at both Northwestern and Minnesota, Johnson is certainly no stranger to the Big Ten. Across a coaching career that’s spanned nearly two decades he’s picked up valuable experience at several schools, including stints at Nebraska and Minnesota. He was part of success on the staffs at Northern Iowa and Xavier, but got his head coaching start at his alma mater in 2021.

You could easily say that things haven’t gone according to plan for Johnson in his first three seasons. He’s yet to lead the Golden Gophers above .500 in Big Ten play, though this past season was a big step forward, more than doubling the program’s win count from 9 to 19. Things are tougher with these changes in the Big Ten and Johnson won’t last much longer if he keeps winning just 25% of conference games, though things might be trending in a better direction.