Shortly before 5 p.m. on Sept. 3, the Ohio State men’s basketball program issued a press release publicly confirming the return of one of its most decorated players: Jared Sullinger, one of only three players in program history to be a first-team All-American more than once, was joining coach Jake Diebler’s staff as director of player development.
The move had been in the works for a while and all but finalized during the weekend, but Sullinger kept it close to the vest. So close that, as of about three hours after the news was made public, he had not yet heard from former teammates and close friends such as Aaron Craft and David Lighty because he hadn’t tipped them off.
“Honestly, nobody knew,” he said. “I kept it under wraps for a reason. I just wanted to say hello world; this is the new me. I haven’t gotten those text messages yet, but I’m pretty sure when I get those text messages, I’m probably going to cry like a little baby.”
Whether or not tears wound up falling, Sullinger had a lot of emotions to unpack. In joining the staff, he officially announced his retirement as a player. He spent two years with the Buckeyes, five in the NBA and parts of the next nine overseas while also spending time playing for Ohio State’s alumni teams in The Basketball Tournament.
After primarily playing in China in recent seasons, the decision to both stop playing and join the Ohio State staff was made with his family in mind. Sullinger and his wife, DeAnn, have three children: twins Jared. Jr. and Jemma, who will be 7 later this month, and Jaycee, who is 5.
“That’s the biggest thing,” he said. “My kids, they needed dad and I needed to be there for them. For 34 years it’s always been about me and basketball, and this time I wanted to make it about them but at the same time still make an impact on basketball.”
Sullinger said the opportunity to join Diebler’s staff was first broached during his most recent season, but he was unable to commit at that time. Now, with NIL/community relations coordinator Nick Kellogg leaving the staff to take a job outside of coaching, the opportunity and the timing were right, he said.
In his job, Sullinger will be able to work directly with the current players on the court during practices.
“Any way I can help the team, whether that’s on the court, off the court,” he said when asked what he envisions his role looking like. “Anywhere I can fill in the missing pieces that ultimately need to be filled. That’s my job, to help this program get back to its prestigious ways.”
In his two years at Ohio State, the Buckeyes went a combined 65-11, won two Big Ten titles and one league tournament championship while reaching the Sweet 16 and the Final Four. Ohio State has not won a Big Ten title since that 2011-12 season, when Sullinger was a sophomore and the Buckeyes saw their season end with a two-point loss to Kansas in the national semifinals.
He wasn’t the only current member of the staff to experience that run of success. Current assistant coach Dave Dickerson was an assistant coach then, too. This offseason, Diebler hired back strength and conditioning coach Dave Richardson to reprise the role he held back then and also added William Buford, Sullinger’s teammate those two seasons, as a program assistant.
“I know I’m in there with some winners,” Sullinger said. “I know they’re going to do whatever it takes to win a basketball game. I know that for a fact. Coach Rich was a guy that pushed us to the limits and made us win every four-minute battle that ever came our way, and I know Will has a winning mentality.”
Buford, Dickerson, Richardson and Sullinger have experienced Ohio State winning at a high level. Now, they will team up again to try and get the program back to those heights.
“I always say the past is in the past,” Sullinger said. “We’ve got to move forward and we’ve got to find new ways to win, but we know what winning plays are. We know what winning body language looks like. We know what it takes.”
As he officially gets his coaching career underway, Sullinger said Ohio State fans will see plenty of similarities to how he played for the Buckeyes.
“The same attitude, the same demeanor, the same effort that you got me as a player, you’re going to see the same type of person on the sideline,” he said. “I’m very detail-oriented. I’m very high on getting guys better in their skill set, so I’m going to pour into the guys the knowledge I was given by the great coaches that I played for.”
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social, on Instagram at @cdadamjardy or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.