The Emergence of Jon Diebler

In beating Maryland - Baltimore County by nine, who is not to be confused with Maryland - College Park, the boxscore offers all kinds of ugliness. Some of the ugly stats include UMBC hitting 17 three pointers, attempting 17 more shots, making three more FGs and some guy named Ray Barbosa going off for 32 points. That Ohio State actually won is commendable, thanks to prodigious work at the charity stripe and the emergence of Jon Diebler.

Diebler, as we should know by now, is the freshman scorer from Upper Sandasky. He adores shooting the three but the beginnings of his collegiate career were frigid shooting the ball. In the first 8 games, he was 7-45 from beyond the arc which equates to 16%. That number is even inflated by a 5-14 night against North Carolina. But, that North Carolina game may have given him the shot of confidence he needed.

Diebler has since gone on a tear in his last four games to make up for his earlier shooting woes. In contests against Presbyterian, Cleveland State, Florda and UMBC, Diebler is 14-23 (61%) from three point land. The improvement is probably less to do with a change in mechanics and more the adjustment some freshman need as they make the leap from high school to major college athletics. And, yes, the opponents aren't exactly murderers row but neither were the teams he faced earlier when he struggled severely to make any jumper. Besides, Florida is still the defending national champs and UMCB actually has a (much) higher RPI than the more famous Maryland. So does Cleveland State.

The key now for Jon will be sustainability. No one should expect this torrid shooting all year; he is not Chris Lofton after all. However, Jon can be an effective and consistent spot up shooter and scorer. If he does, at the end of the season, we can look back that this stretch as his breakthrough period.