Gene Smith brings a chair to see Jake Diebler enjoy Ohio State's win against Purdue

Four days prior, Gene Smith trudged into the postgame interview room at Value City Arena with a scowl on his face and a burden on his shoulders. It was Wednesday night, and the Ohio State athletic director eschewed an opening statement, took questions for roughly 13 minutes and left.

Smith had just fired men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann, and while he was emotional about it and expressed multiple regrets about the previous seven years, he didn’t have a whole lot of interest in offering long-winded answers amid a season sliding toward the Big Ten’s cellar once again.

Sunday afternoon, Smith returned to that same room. This time, he carried two chairs and placed them in the back of the room so he could sit with his wife, Sheila, and watch the man he’d asked to be interim coach enjoy the spoils of having been the week’s most surprising victor in all of men’s college basketball. In his first game as interim head coach, Ohio State’s Jake Diebler helped direct a 73-69 upset of No. 2 Purdue in front of 18,353 fans.

Many of them reached the court before heading home, dancing on the hardwood to celebrate the occasion. It was the capstone of a week sophomore guard Bruce Thornton called “one of my hardest, weirdest, most dramatic times being a college basketball player.”

The same can easily be said for Diebler, who woke up Wednesday morning as the team’s associate head coach and now had to make his way through a court filled with fans after having coached Ohio State to its biggest win in the last two years. The decision to step into the position was made out of a desire to help lead the players he helped lead to Ohio State, he said, and did not come without a heavy heart out of loyalty to Holtmann.

As the fans streamed onto the floor, Diebler said he was fighting back his emotions. He took a moment to thank God, which made him emotional, he said. Then he ran into his family, and it was all over.

“Then my wife made it the court and then my parents and it was trouble after that,” he said. “I couldn’t keep it in anymore. I don’t want to get too into those details because I will get emotional again.”

When Smith fired Holtmann, he said the timing was designed to give Diebler the longest runway possible to have success in the remaining games. Realistically, with 25 games already under their belts, there wasn’t a lot the Buckeyes could change at this point on the calendar. The focus in practice was on greater pace and more accountability and togetherness, and Thornton said he felt they won each day of practice in preparation for Purdue.

Ohio State Buckeyes: Ohio State's Jake Diebler steps into interim coach role as family offers support

Ohio State played noticeably lighter. It turned 14 Purdue turnovers into a 22-5 advantage in points off turnovers, relying on its defense to fuel its offense. A deeper rotation resulted in 26 bench points, the most in a Big Ten game this year. Otherwise, Purdue coach Matt Painter said the Buckeyes looked like the same Buckeyes he’d watched all year.

“Nothing,” Painter said when asked what differences he saw with Ohio State with Diebler in place of Holtmann. “None. If he was here, the score would’ve been 73-69, Ohio State. Nothing. He’s his assistant. They didn’t run anything different. They didn’t do anything different. They’re the same team. It’s a players’ game. They have good players.”

He didn’t want to go into details, but Diebler said he did have a conversation with Holtmann that gave him confidence to lead the team. During the game, Diebler said he had an assistant check on him because he looked flushed. His response: it’s hot, and this is how I coach. Thornton said the players could see some nerves during the first media timeout, when Diebler’s hands were shaking.

“I’ll try to hide that better next time,” Diebler said.

There was no hiding the joy that came from an actual win against the team that had been named the overall No. 1 seed in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament bracket reveal. Ohio State had lost nine of 11 games coming in; Purdue had won nine straight. When he made his way into the locker room, Diebler was soaked by his players spraying him with water bottles.

“I’m so proud of you guys, man,” he said, fighting back tears in a video from the locker room posted to Instagram. “You guys earned the right to win this game … you guys played how a family plays.”

When his press conference was complete, Diebler exited the interview room and headed toward the loading dock. Just outside the room, he was embraced by Smith, who cupped Diebler’s face with one hand and spoke to him for a minute before parting ways with a hearty pat on the back.

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Where this ultimately goes is impossible to know. Ohio State has five games remaining plus whatever postseason fate it can make for itself. The Buckeyes will go to Minnesota on Thursday and Michigan State on Sunday while saddled with a 16-game road losing streak that is tied for the longest in school history.

Sunday night at least, Ohio State finally saw some payoff from hard work.

“I told our guys (Saturday) night, we’re going in this to win,” Diebler said. “We’re not going in this to be close. They had earned the right to play well. As the game went on, they believed. It’s going to be important moving forward that we keep that same mentality.

“There’s certainly going to be adversity, but we want to keep that mentality.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Emotional interim coach Jake Diebler guides Ohio State past Purdue