Dayton played Ohio State at UD Arena in an exhibition game a year ago in the first game in this series, which has restarted the discussion about the four biggest men’s basketball programs in Ohio getting together for games that count.
At one point this past offseason, Diebler got Wes Miller, Xavier coach Sean Miller and Dayton coach Anthony Grant on a Zoom call to talk about the possibility of an event featuring all four teams, whether that be in the preseason or in the regular season.
“One of the things that is evident by our non-conference schedule is we want to continue to prepare ourselves for Big 10 play,” Diebler said, “and we want to play a tough non-conference schedule. I’m certainly open to conversations about creating a pathway for us to play. Some of these teams that would enhance our non-conference schedule are here in our state.
“I think that this is an important step forward. I also don’t want to lose our ability to impact the community with this game and how that comes into play in a regular-season game needs to be discussed because as much as we’re going to benefit from this as a team and learn about our team, I do still think the most important part of Friday and this weekend is in general is the four of our programs coming together and the impact that’s going to have in our state. I don’t want to lose sight of that. So if we can do that in a regular-season game, and it fits the intricacies of scheduling, we’re certainly open to talking about that.”
Diebler’s predecessor, Chris Holtmann, built momentum for a regular-season event featuring the teams in 2017, but it never happened. As the head coach at Butler, Holtmann coached in the Crossroads Classic, which featured Indiana’s top four programs: Indiana; Purdue; Butler; and Notre Dame.
“I think the reality is you have other programs in the state that have been really high-achieving programs,” Holtmann told Ohio State’s student newspaper, The Lantern, seven years ago. “I get why we haven’t played some of those schools in the past, but I also recognize that, I think perhaps if those programs were really struggling programs that wouldn’t be as beneficial for us. I don’t think that’d be in Ohio State’s best interest, but they’re programs that have had success and that makes it mutually beneficial.”
At that time, Dayton Athletic Director Neil Sullivan said UD had talked with the other schools about playing.
“There’s a lot of logistics to it,” Sullivan said in 2017. “It’s not the first time we’ve talked about it. We’ve talked about it a lot over the years. It seemed to peak there a little bit. A couple of the coaches made some comments, so that’s a door I’ll certainly run through.”
Dayton has not played Xavier since 2015, and it hasn’t played Ohio State outside the NIT or NCAA tournament since a four-game series from 1985-88. Dayton and Cincinnati played last year for the first time in 13 years and will play again on Dec. 20 in the Hoops Classic at Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati.
Xavier and Cincinnati play every year in the Crosstown Shootout. Xavier played Ohio State at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati in the 2021-22 season, but that was only the second game between the teams in this century.
Ohio State and Cincinnati opened the 2018 and 2019 seasons against each other and also played in the Maui Invitational in 2022.
Diebler was on Holtmann’s staff when Ohio State played the exhibition game at Dayton last year and saw what kind of impact the game had on raising awareness about the importance of mental health.
“When you now have an opportunity to bring all four of these programs together and enhance that, I think we would be foolish not to try to do that,” he said. “And then the other part of it for me, as someone who grew up in Ohio and is a product of the basketball culture here in Ohio, to get these four programs together, it just made too much sense. Being the head coach at Ohio State, I believe you have a responsibility to keep pushing the basketball community to grow, and anything we can do to help that in our state is important. I think Wes and I are both on board. I really think all four of us are on board in figuring out a way to continue this.”
Diebler said they wanted to play both exhibition games as a doubleheader at one site this year, but they weren’t able to find a date.
“If there’s an avenue to do that in the future, great,” he said. “I think that could be awesome and special for the state and would be impactful in the basketball community and, more importantly, in supporting mental health and the resources throughout our state, in our communities. I think if it’s a if it’s one of these off-site deals, if we could travel throughout the state and do it, I think we’re all kind of open to seeing where this can go.”
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