The Ohio State Buckeyes have only themselves to blame as the Michigan Wolverines are crowned the men's National Champions.
The Michigan Wolverines put on a basketball clinic over the course of the month of March. They scored over 90 points in five of their six wins, and they fought off a pesky UConn team in the National Championship to hoist the trophy as kings of college basketball in 2025-26.
For Ohio State, they can only think about what could have been.
Three years ago, in 2023, the Buckeyes had moved on from their past coach, Chris Holtmann, and they had a chance to reset their entire program.
After firing Holtmann, they gave the interim job to assistant coach Jake Diebler, who did an amazing job in the final 11 games of the season, where the Buckeyes went 8-3, including major wins over Purdue, Michigan State, and Michigan.
Buckeye Nation and the Ohio State administration got drunk on the Diebler Kool-Aid, and it cost them a chance at one of the best coaches in college basketball.
At the time in 2023, the Buckeyes were down to their final two candidates, Diebler and Dusty May.
The Buckeyes decided to go with Diebler and let May continue exploring job opportunities, which landed him in Michigan.
The rest is history.
Now, the Ohio State program is caught looking down at their palms, thinking what could have been for this program that is desperate for a revival.
In May's two years in Ann Arbor, he has an astounding 64-13 record with a Big Ten Championship and a National Championship to his name. In that same span, Diebler and the Buckeyes are a modest 46-31 record with just one NCAA Tournament appearance, thanks to a miracle run this year.
Excluding Diebler's interim record, May has completely lapped him. May has almost 30 more wins in two years and 15 fewer losses. More than just the record, May's Michigan program has several star players and, in his terms, is built to last. Even in an unsustainable era and environment in college sports.
Watching the Wolverines hoist the trophy on Monday night was a major bummer for Buckeye fans everywhere because they can only ask the question, what could have been for them and this program?
Instead of being in basketball purgatory, they could have been at the top of the mountain.
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