The roster for Jake Diebler’s third season as the Ohio State men’s basketball coach is essentially finished.
Now, the coaching staff is, too. Ohio State has announced a handful of moves that include a promotion, three new hires and two familiar faces making their way back to Columbus.
Ohio State has hired Mike Wells, a Mount Vernon native, to replace Joel Justus on Diebler’s staff. Justus’ departure also left Diebler without an associate head coach, a role that assistant coach Jamall Walker will step into in his third season with the program.
They will be joined by some faces new to this coaching staff but not the program. Dave Richardson, who was Thad Matta’s strength and conditioning coach for 12 seasons, is reprising that role after eight seasons in that position for the Arkansas men’s basketball team. He will replace Quadrian Banks, who had been in that role for the Buckeyes for the previous eight seasons.
While Richardson was with the Ohio State men’s basketball program from 2005-17, he worked with William Buford, whose 1,990 points scored from 2008-12 are tied for fourth-most in program history. Now they’ll work together after Diebler has hired Buford as a program assistant, his first step into a potential coaching career after playing professional basketball overseas for more than a decade.
Wells most recently spent two years as head coach for the Adalade 36ers in the Australian National Basketball League. Prior to that, he began a lengthy career as an NBA assistant coach in 1994 with Houston and has had stops with the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio, Washington, Utah and Charlotte, winning championships with the 1995 Rockets and 2007 Spurs.
Richardson has helped Arkansas reach at least the Sweet 16 in five of the last six seasons. While at Ohio State, the Buckeyes reached the 2007 national championship game, another Final Four, one Elite Eight and two Sweet 16s.
Walker has been part of Diebler’s staff since he was hired in 2024 and has been on staff for a men’s college basketball program since 2004 with his longest stop being an eight-year stint at Illinois from 2012-20.
Buford’s role is expected to wide-ranging, from helping players with workouts to learning how to break down and code film for the coaches. He also earned his degree from Ohio State in 2025.
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State men’s basketball adds Dave Richardson, William Buford to staff
Reporting by Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
