Bjork’s comments last week were the most concrete analysis of what he expects from the men’s basketball program.
Early last week, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork spoke to the Columbus Dispatch about the men’s basketball program. At a time when football is far more popular — and let’s face it, more successful — it can be tough to get Bjork to talk about basketball for more than a few seconds. The Dispatch was able to sit down with him for awhile, and both asked him about this year’s team and his general expectations for the program.
The tangent that follows will mostly focus on Bjork’s expectations for the program, based off of his comments last week. But the Ohio State AD also said that he felt Jake Diebler and his staff did a good enough job in the transfer portal to make the team “stable” and said that the team has “the right pieces” to win this season.
Bjork also commented that having continuity in the program is important, and that he thinks this year’s team will have that after bringing back Bruce Thornton (17.7 PPG), Devin Royal (13.7 PPG), and John Mobley Jr. (13 PPG). In fact, only Purdue and UCLA will rival Ohio State’s returning production in the Big Ten this upcoming season.
Here’s what Bjork said are his expectations for the program, broken down bit by bit. Now that we’ve got this on record, we know exactly where the bar is that the second-year AD expects the second-year head coach to clear.
“Finish in the upper quadrant of the Big Ten”
“To me, you want to finish in the upper quadrant of the Big Ten,” Bjork said. “That means you’re competing for a championship.”
By definition, a “quadrant” is one of four spaces on a grid when the x and y axes dissect a grid. Finishing in the “upper quadrant” probably means finishing in the “upper fourth” based on the mathematical definition of the term.
With 18 teams in the Big Ten, that means finishing in the top four or five of the Big Ten every season. It’s been four years since Ohio State finished in the top five of the Big Ten. A top-four finish means getting a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament, so Bjork thinks the Buckeyes should be fighting for that double-bye every season, based on his comments.
Be an NCAA Tournament team
“You want to be in the conversation all year long as an NCAA Tournament team.”
The unspoken part there is to be in the conversation for a Big Ten title all year long as an NCAA Tournament team, but the part I think is most important is the NCAA Tournament part. Bjork expects Ohio State to be playing in the NCAA Tournament every year going forward. Not making the big dance means the season was a failure — end of story.
The Buckeyes have missed the NCAA Tournament each of the past three seasons, although they came close this past season, finishing as the third team left out of the tournament this past season. Of the four teams who were left just on the outside (Ohio State, West Virginia, Indiana, Boise State), the Buckeyes had the highest NET ranking of the group.
Bjork thinks the Buckeyes were close, too, saying, “Did we want to win last year? Yeah, we did. We were maybe one game away from making the NCAA Tournament and being a good seed.”
“Make a run in the NCAA Tournament”
“And then you want to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.”
Diebler won’t be fired if he fails to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament next season — although failing to make the tournament at all might be a different story. Bjork is basically saying here that once every couple years, simply making the NCAA Tournament isn’t going to be enough at Ohio State.
Making it to the NCAA Tournament will be a given, but every once in awhile Bjork expects Ohio State to string some wins together in the tournament, too, resulting in a Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, or better. The last time Ohio State won more than one game in the NCAA Tournament was 2013.
The last three seasons, Ohio State has gone 0-for-3 in the above goals. Now that Diebler’s boss has clearly stated what he expects, we know exactly what the Buckeyes have to shoot for this season. The Buckeyes finished 10th in the Big Ten last season, tied for ninth the year before that, and 13th the year before that.
If Bjork is serious about those parameters he laid out, the lack of winning over the last three years just won’t cut it moving forward. We’ll see if Diebler and his staff are able to help elevate Ohio State’s play this season to a level that will satisfy the big boss.