Roddy Gayle hoping to turn tough coaching into better play for Ohio State
MINNEAPOLIS – A lot has changed in the last two weeks for Roddy Gayle and Jake Diebler.
As Diebler has settled into the role of interim head coach, Gayle and his Ohio State teammates have had to adjust to a slightly different way of doing things without Chris Holtmann in charge. One thing has remained the same, though, as the Buckeyes prepare to play at Michigan State on Sunday.
“Stuff ain’t never changed between me and Dieb,” Gayle told The Dispatch after an 88-79 loss at Minnesota on Thursday night. “We have the relationship where he’s allowed to chew me out and coach me tough. I respect him enough to be able to take coaching, look him in the eye and be able to take what he’s seeing.”
What Diebler saw against the Golden Gophers, at least during the opening minutes, just wasn’t enough. With Minnesota already ahead 19-9, a Gayle foul sent the teams into the first media timeout of the game with 14:40 remaining in the half. When play resumed, Gayle was one of three players subbed out by Diebler.
He didn’t sit long, but Gayle said Diebler made it clear what the coach was seeing in his play against the Gophers.
“He said that he needed another level out of me, so I felt like I had to play a lot harder and I think I did,” Gayle said. “I answered him.”
In a losing effort, Gayle finished with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Both of his misses were from 3-point range, but it wasn’t so much his offense as Ohio State’s team defense that struggled. Minnesota guard Elijah Hawkins, a third-year player in his first season with the program after two years at Howard, finished with a career-high 24 points and added seven assists while giving the Buckeyes fits.
It wasn’t just on Gayle to try and contain Hawkins, and Diebler said he saw the Ohio State sophomore pick up his play after halftime.
“I felt there were some moments where he could’ve maybe made a play or got to a loose ball that he didn’t necessarily, but he wasn’t the only one,” Diebler said. “That happened to us too much collectively. Roddy’s a great kid. He wants to be a great basketball player, and he responded. You saw him play really well in the second half in stretches.”
In his first season as a full-time starter, Gayle’s scoring average has grown from 4.6 points per game to 13.8. His overall field-goal percentage has climbed slightly from 44.0% to 44.2%, but his 3-point shooting percentage has plummeted. After going 21 for 49 (42.9%) as a freshman, Gayle is 23 for 80 (28.8%) this season.
Gayle has had opportunities for pivotal transition 3-pointers in each of the last two games but has missed each time. Ohio State won against No. 2 Purdue and lost to Minnesota, and after both games Diebler has reiterated his desire for Gayle to continue to hunt and take those shots while being aggressive on the break.
“The confidence that Dieb has in me is very uplifting,” Gayle said. “We work on that shot every day in our workouts, so if I have time and space, I know he wants me to shoot it and I feel like it’s going to go down every time.”
Diebler was Gayle’s primary recruiter, helping the Buckeyes land the four-star guard from Niagara Falls, New York, in the 2022 class. This season, Gayle scored a career-high 32 points in an overtime win against West Virginia, and his 86 assists are second only to classmate Bruce Thornton on Ohio State’s roster. His 66 turnovers are 24 more than anyone else on the roster, though, as Gayle has displayed some growing pains during his first year of being tasked as a playmaker.
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Seeing the coach he signed to play for get fired with six games left in the season was tough, he said.
“I just worry about things I can control and that’s being a leader to this group we have and being able to control my effort every play,” he said. “That’s just what I pride myself on.”
Diebler said his relationship with Gayle has allowed him to challenge the sophomore to give the Buckeyes more.
“I’ve asked him, ‘Do you want to be great?’ ” Diebler said. “He says yes. I said, ‘I think you can be great. I think you can be special, so we’ve got to trust each other and I’ve got to hold you accountable to that.’ He is a fighter.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State's Jake Diebler, Roddy Gayle trusting each other for growth
