After two years as Jake Diebler’s associate head coach, Joel Justus is leaving Ohio State for a job at Vanderbilt.
Justus will join Mark Byington’s staff, filling a spot opened when Kenneth Mangum left for a job at Georgia Tech. The move puts Justus closer to family, reunites him with longtime friend Byington and creates an opening for the Buckeyes as Diebler prepares for his third season.
Although they were not teammates, Justus and Byington both played collegiately for UNC Wilmington and have friendships and teammates that overlap.
“I’m excited to join a longtime friend in Mark Byington,” Justus said. “It’s bittersweet, because I love what we’ve done here in getting this program back to where everyone wants it to be and have a tremendous amount of confidence in Jake and the staff and the university that this will continue to grow to where Buckeye Nation wants it to be.”
Silver Waves Media named Justus as one of its 100 most impactful high major assistant coaches during the season alongside fellow Buckeyes assistant Jamall Walker. He was a key recruiter for Diebler and helped with the program’s offense, which rated No. 18 nationally in adjusted efficiency according to KenPom.com.
“Those two guys have helped pave the way as we’re building this program,” Diebler said Jan. 19 when asked about Justus and Walker. “You’ve got to work extremely hard and work well with others and those two guys are great examples of tons of experience, elite recruiters. They’re great people and they care a ton and have helped me personally, as have the rest of the staff.”
Prior to Ohio State, Justus spent time at N.C. State, Arizona State and Kentucky at the high-major level.
“I’m appreciative of the friendship and mentor of Jake and the staff,” Justus said. “I’ll always hold Columbus and Ohio State close to my heart. It’s always hard to leave when you have faith and you trust that you’re in a great place with great people, but I’m excited about where I’m going and look forward to my next steps.”
Justus is the second member of Diebler’s initial staff to leave for another job. Talor Battle, the final coach hired for the 2024-25 season, left during the offseason to take a job at Penn State, his alma mater. Diebler replaced him with Brian Walsh, who had spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach at Indiana.
The Buckeyes are likely to look to add a high-level recruiter as an assistant to fill Justus’ role.
At Ohio State, Justus made a base salary of $425,000 plus various other benefits. Like the rest of the coaching staff, he earned a bonus for leading the Buckeyes back into the NCAA Tournament. His amounted to $18,063, calculated as 4.25% of his base salary.
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.
