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Home > Blogs > Buckeyes Beat > Archives > 2009 > February > 25 > Entry
Diebler, again, larger than life
No. 2 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays this morning feature Ohio State guard Jon Diebler in pre-game warm ups before Tuesday’s game against Penn State. After draining a half-court shot, the show cut to Diebler making another, swishing from the mid-court OSU logo.
He might as well make half-court shots. To many, Diebler maintains a mythical quality.
No matter what his numbers at Ohio State have been (slow start, but improving), Diebler spent his high school career putting up points at a rate that earned him Paul Bunyan status. Many of us followed his reports from short sentences of statewide coverage that made him sound invincible. It was 40-some points one night, then 50-some the next and 60-some in several cases.
But because he came from a smaller Division II school, Upper Sandusky, not much was known about Diebler. Many folks, frankly, didn’t know his position, height or any other information.
They knew he scored a lot of points.
It was a interesting characteristic we addressed in a 2007 story about Diebler during his senior season in high school:
Despite his success, though, he is more Rick Mount than O.J. Mayo — a player whose exploits have become coffee shop talk, not ESPN fodder. In this rural town of 6,455 residents about 40 miles east of Interstate 75 on U.S. 30, they know him because there are no secrets at Woody’s, the Pour House or the Steer Barn.
But outside of Upper Sandusky, he is mostly known through one-sentence passages in newspapers, which tell readers he has scored 60 points or 47 points or 69 points in leading 10th-ranked Upper Sandusky to its second Northern Ohio League title in 42 years (both have come in the past three seasons, since father Keith took the head coaching job).
In many places, he is more myth than the smiling, friendly, 18-year-old who was so worried when he earned his first speeding ticket a year ago (68 in a 55) that he telephoned Ohio State basketball coach Thad Matta to express his concern.
He still has a scholarship waiting in Columbus, where beginning next season many will see him for the first time and take in a player whose basketball accomplishments have been the stuff of blue oxen in central Ohio.
“Before the Internet and television and cable, the players were mostly unknown,” said Jay Burson, whose 22-year-old record of 2,958 career points Diebler broke on Feb. 23 (Diebler currently stands at 3,036). “Not everyone saw Bob Cousy play, just heard about what he did. You still have that at the high school level, at least for now.
“And Jon, I think, is the best example of a high school hero.”
Now at Ohio State, Diebler is no longer so unknown. But that doesn’t mean he can’t still be larger-than-life at times.
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By average_guy
February 28, 2009 3:39 AM | Link to this
There’s a guy that looks a lot like this guy that plays for OSU men’s basketball currently, but his name is On Eibler…no “J” and no “D”.