Ohio State’s Kalen Etzler, right, drives to the basket as Charleston Southern’s Tyeree Bryan defends during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio.
AP Photo | Jay LaPrete
COLUMBUS – Austin Parks and Kalen Etzler ranked No. 13 and No. 14 in playing time on Ohio State’s men’s basketball team last season.
That type of season might have sent a lot of college basketball players into a full-out sprint to the transfer portal. But Parks, a sophomore from St. Marys, and Etzler, a redshirt junior from Crestview, are back at Ohio State this season and glad to be there.
Both said Ohio State coach Jake Diebler is a big reason they stayed when he was hired as the Buckeyes head coach after going 8-3 as interim head coach following the firing of Chris Holtmann in mid-February.
“There was a good little period where I was nervous,” Parks said about the time between Holtmann’s forced exit and Diebler’s promotion to head coach.
“I didn’t know where I was going to end up. I didn’t know what the future held for me. I was worried. I was talking to friends and family and preparing for the worst. But once Coach Diebler got the job and after the meetings with him I was sure this is where I wanted to be,” he said.
“He (Diebler) is a phenomenal recruiter and the way he runs things is on another level. He wants this team to be nothing but great. It’s like this is a coach you want to play for.”
Etzler came out of his meetings with Diebler after the 37-year-old OSU coach signed a 5-year contract with the same feeling that he was welcome to return as Parks did.
“He made me real comfortable with it. He cares a lot about us. He said, ‘I want you to be around, to help out any way you can,’ ” Etzler said.
“I definitely am willing to help my teammates any way I can, whether that’s being on the scout team or grabbing a water bottle for them during a game – whatever I can do to help us win after two years of struggling a little bit,” he said.
Parks, a 6-10, 260-pound center, set the St. Marys career scoring record with 1,528 points and was ranked the No. 5 prospect in Ohio in 2023. Etzler, a 6-8, 180-pound forward, scored 1,314 points at Crestview and was ranked the No. 3 recruit in Ohio in 2021.
Parks said, “Everybody has had multiple meetings with Coach Diebler and he has made it clear what he feels we need to work on, what we’re good at and how each of us is going to help the team this year. We’ve been talking a lot.
“I’m going to play my best, do what I’m good at and whatever they need me to do is what I’m going to do,” he said.
There will be a lot of competition for playing time among OSU’s big men after Diebler brought in 7-1 Aaron Bradshaw from Kentucky, 7-1 Ivan Njegovan from Croatia, and 6-9 power forward Sean Stewart from Duke. Parks and Njegovan could be in a battle for the backup center’s role behind Bradshaw.
Stewart played in 33 games at Duke last season as a freshman and Bradshaw got into 26 games at Kentucky as a freshman. Both were 5-star recruits and were McDonald’s All-Americans. Njegovan played in the top league in Croatia.
“At first I was kind of nervous about it but now that they’re here I feel like it’s a great opportunity to work on my game, They’re phenomenal players and great athletes so it has really pushed me to work on my game,” Parks said.
“They’re tough to rebound over and tough to score over. I feel like having that presence in practice every day is really going to help me in the long run.”
After playing an exhibition game against Cincinnati on Oct. 18, the Buckeyes will begin their regular season on Nov. 4 with a game against Texas in Las Vegas.
