Next season, the Ohio State men’s basketball team will have a fresh group of faces, including top-notch recruits, and most recently, a new assistant coach.
Dave Dickerson, former head basketball coach at Tulane University, joins the Buckeyes as they try to improve on their 29-8 performance this past season.
“I’m very excited to start at The Ohio State University,” said Dickerson. “Just working at an institution where you know you have everything available to win at a high level, it’s an idea that’s very entertaining.”
For Dickerson, leaving Tulane and heading to OSU was an easy decision to make.
“When this job came up at Ohio State, it’s one of the best jobs in the country,” he said. “It’s a great situation.”
Coach Thad Matta has wanted to make Davidson a member of the coaching staff since he began at Ohio State six years ago, and finally, the pieces fell together.
“With Dave, six years ago I kind of begged and pleaded with him,” said Matta. “I’ve just always been impressed with him, his style. I was going to wait as long as I needed to for him, but fortunately we got things worked out quickly.”
The Tulane program had registered just one season better than .500 before Dickerson took over. Dickerson, who coached there for five years, recorded back-to-back winning seasons in 2006-07 and 2007-08.
Coaching at the collegiate level is very familiar to him, as he has been involved at the assistant level or higher since 1990. Nine of his 30 years coaching were spent as an assistant at the University of Maryland, his alma mater.
“That was probably one of the best stretches of coaching I’ve had in my 20 years,” said Dickerson. “In my tenure at Maryland we had two Final Fours and winning a National Championship, winning an ACC Championship. Those things were good, but I think when you’re at Ohio State you can have the opportunity to do that same thing.”
Matta is excited to bring in someone who not only has experience coaching, but also in playing the game. Dickerson played basketball at Maryland from 1985 to 1989.
Dickerson has immediately stepped into the role of assistant coach, replacing Alan Major, who was appointed head coach at Charlotte two weeks ago.
“When this job became available with Alan’s departure, he was the only guy I talked to,” Matta said. “We moved pretty quick. He’s a tremendous person and knows how to do things the right way. I love the fact that he helped build a National Championship program as an assistant coach.”
With OSU boasting the second-best recruiting class in the country heading into next season, Dickerson feels that OSU will remain an elite program.
“The great thing for me is that I’m heading into one of the best schools in the country,” Dickerson said. “I think people all over the country know that Ohio State is one of those schools who can not only contend for a National Championship in football, but also in basketball.”
Although Dickerson has no coaching experience in the Midwest, he is confident heading into his newest program.
“I’m intense as a basketball coach,” Dickerson said. “But I understand that I am an assistant coach now, so I will do whatever I can do to fit in with the staff here at Ohio State.”
