Jake Diebler on His Mentality vs. Purdue
Interim coach Jake Diebler spoke on his emotions during Ohio State's big win over No. 2 Purdue
Transcript
00:00 >> Yeah, let me just say something real quick about the guys in our locker room.
00:05 What a resilient group.
00:06 We have some great young men in there who came together at a high level
00:13 these last few days in a way that I don't know that any of us fully anticipated
00:17 that level we could get to in a short amount of time.
00:19 But they deserve so much credit.
00:22 I'm so very happy for them and proud of them.
00:26 And I just, I wanted to start with that.
00:31 Two things, may I have one more thing?
00:34 Two things.
00:35 One, two things happened in the last few days that just really helped me.
00:41 One was a conversation with Hope a couple nights ago that
00:44 it just gave me kind of a confidence in him talking to me.
00:51 And I'm not gonna get into any details of the conversation, but
00:54 that was really helpful for me and I'm so thankful for that conversation.
00:57 I'm just, I'm so thankful to God to give me the peace and
01:03 just the comfort to fill into this seat in what's been a challenging few days.
01:10 So outside of that, we'll go to questions.
01:13 >> All right, we'll start.
01:14 Adam, you got a mic?
01:15 >> Yeah.
01:15 >> Go ahead.
01:16 >> [INAUDIBLE]
01:19 >> No, Steve's got it.
01:20 Go ahead, Steve.
01:21 >> Jake, just from your standpoint, I mean, you talked about on Friday how you
01:25 thought the first day of practice in this new situation was a positive day.
01:30 You thought some things had been accomplished.
01:33 I mean, to do so much in such a compacted amount of time and
01:36 just have everybody buy in, just, I don't know, what's your feeling about the way
01:40 that everybody in your group came together to manifest this today?
01:46 >> Yeah, I told our guys before we went out,
01:48 let's play how we've practiced the last few days.
01:51 There was a great sense of urgency and pace to what we were doing.
01:55 But I think you have to credit the leadership of our team.
02:00 You have to credit our staff.
02:02 And just this was, we've talked about family for three days.
02:06 We've talked about how important that is.
02:07 And I felt like we came together.
02:09 We were a true family.
02:10 We played like it.
02:11 We coached like it.
02:12 So I think those two things, our staff and our players,
02:15 the leadership of our players were critical, Steve.
02:18 >> Coach, do you love that cheer?
02:19 It looks like you were getting emotional at the end after the win.
02:22 What was it like for you?
02:23 >> I'm trying, I don't wanna get emotional right now.
02:25 >> [LAUGH] >> I was, I just,
02:29 I had to take a moment just to thank God for,
02:33 just to thank God there after the game.
02:37 And that made me emotional, that going through the line.
02:41 I was fighting it, I was fighting it.
02:43 And then my wife made it to the court, and then my parents.
02:46 And it was trouble after that.
02:48 I couldn't keep it in anymore.
02:49 So yeah, but I don't wanna get into those details,
02:54 cuz I will get emotional again.
02:56 >> What was the difference today in your eyes that made for
03:01 some of these recent games?
03:03 Obviously, how to lead, where do you start to cut into it?
03:05 There's the chance to maybe have some of those same demons, but
03:10 you guys don't, what was it?
03:13 >> We've talked about for three days of putting ourselves in the position you're
03:17 talking about where we have a lead down the stretch.
03:22 And the model all week has been stay aggressive and keep swinging.
03:25 Told Roddy Gale after the game, I got no problem with you taking that three,
03:31 cuz you were hoping you're a good player.
03:32 Like step up and swing and knock it down next time.
03:36 And I think that mentality was our guys embraced that.
03:41 And obviously, listen, Jameson Battle was clutched on the stretch,
03:44 Bruce Thornton hitting free throws.
03:46 I wish I could say it's just some miraculous coaching at that point, but
03:52 good players stepped up.
03:53 And I think the biggest thing was just the collective mentality of
03:59 our family out there was we were gonna stay aggressive the whole game,
04:01 no matter what.
04:03 >> Bruce pointed to that three as well as if he makes it,
04:07 what happens then, he's okay with that being taken.
04:10 How much is that a fine evidence of this season player?
04:14 Sometimes those threes don't go down.
04:15 Today it didn't matter, but sometimes it has.
04:18 Is that just what college basketball is, especially in big league?
04:23 >> In this league, the margins are so small, so small.
04:27 And that's why each day we're gonna keep fighting to have
04:32 a mentality moving forward.
04:36 And I hope we make all those the rest of the season.
04:40 If we don't, we're gonna stay aggressive.
04:43 We're gonna keep swinging.
04:45 I was really, really proud of just our aggressiveness defensively.
04:49 I thought that was really good.
04:51 But that's just kinda how we just wanna be about that mentality moving forward.
04:57 >> Jake, Bruce said after the first media timeout, your hands are shaking.
05:02 What was going through your mind the first five, ten minutes of the game?
05:05 >> Yeah, I'm tired right now.
05:09 I feel like I coached really probably too hard in a couple instances.
05:14 But one of the guys on our staff comes up to me and he's like, are you okay?
05:18 I'm like, yes, I'm fine.
05:18 He's like, well, you look a little flushed.
05:20 I'm like, well, I'm hot.
05:22 I've been coaching hard, but I was nervous going into this game.
05:26 Just to be full transparency, I was nervous, absolutely.
05:30 But advice from all the people that have reached out to me,
05:36 including Gene, has been you gotta be yourself.
05:40 And so I just tried to stay true to that.
05:44 And that was, yeah, he's probably right.
05:48 I didn't know, my hands were shaking.
05:50 I'll try and maybe hide that a little bit better next time.
05:52 >> [LAUGH] >> Just a note before you about Bruce,
05:54 he and Lance were really going out a lot in the first half on offensive and
05:59 defensive end.
06:00 What do you have to say to Bruce's offense?
06:02 I mean, attacking Lance, he's such a great perimeter defender.
06:06 >> I thought Bruce had some huge buckets for us in the second half.
06:10 I don't exactly know the timing and the score,
06:15 was it after a specific thing Purdue did.
06:18 But I was really impressed with his just mentality, and
06:22 I felt like he was not going to let us lose.
06:26 And that's what you want in a point guard.
06:29 And it certainly, that wasn't exclusive to him.
06:32 We had, it was just collectively, guys were so
06:36 invested into doing their job at a high level to help this team.
06:41 And we're gonna lean into that starting on practice here.
06:46 >> Tuesday.
06:49 >> Tuesday.
06:49 >> Tuesday.
06:50 >> We'll go into here first.
06:52 >> Jake, the rotation, I think it was 11 deep in the first half.
06:56 Bruce was mentioning, it's just gonna be high tempo, high intensity.
07:00 You're gonna need a lot of guys, energy was.
07:02 What gave you the confidence to go, at one point there was three freshmen in,
07:05 two sophomores in.
07:07 Where was your confidence in those young guys in a key moment in the first half?
07:11 >> Yeah, that was, give you some insight into the dialogue on the bench.
07:15 I don't know that that was the most well received lineup of the first half.
07:20 But I'm not necessarily sure that in the game I was thinking through that,
07:25 the age of guys.
07:26 We've had a great deal of experience up to this point in the season.
07:30 And I think you have to learn to lean into that.
07:33 Certainly, the youth of this team has been well documented.
07:37 But we believe in the guys in the locker room.
07:41 And one of the things we really wanted to do was get guys to
07:46 just exhaust themselves on the court.
07:48 We felt like we had more guys than I could ever remember,
07:51 kind of like coach, I need one.
07:54 And I thought that was.