Top Ohio State basketball assistant coach leaving for another job
Top Ohio State assistant coach Joel Justus departs for Vanderbilt, taking his recruiting prowess and Final Four experience to the Commodores.
Ohio State basketball head coach Jake Diebler will have a new top assistant coach next season. Ohio State men’s basketball associate head coach Joel Justus is leaving the program for an assistant coaching job at Vanderbilt, ending a two-year run on Jake Diebler’s staff. Justus, who joined the Buckeyes in April 2024 , had served as Diebler’s top assistant and was part of the staff that helped Ohio State return to the NCAA Tournament this season.
Before Ohio State, he spent two seasons at NC State, one season at Arizona State and seven years at Kentucky in various roles, including assistant coach, special assistant to the head coach and director of analytics. At Kentucky, he was part of staffs that won SEC championships and helped land highly ranked recruiting classes, including a 2017 class widely regarded as one of the best ever and the nation’s No. 1 class in 2020.
Joel brought his years of experience with other top programs to Columbus and worked closely with the guards for coach Diebler. His official biography on the university athletics page says that he was also the associate head coach on the staff. Justus' biggest calling card seems to be his recruiting.
On top of the success at Kentucky mentioned earlier, he helped build portal classes at NC State that brought in immediate contributors that led that team to an ACC tournament title. News: #OhioState associate head coach Joel Justus is leaving the #Buckeyes for a job at Vanderbilt, multiple sources have told me. https://t.