Ohio State loses top assistant coach Joel Justus to Vanderbilt
COLUMBUS — Ohio State is losing its top assistant coach: associated head coach Joel Justus is leaving Jake Diebler’s staff for a seat on Mark Byington’s bench at Vanderbilt, sources confirmed to Lettermen Row on Tuesday.
Justus had been with the Buckeyes since 2024, Diebler’s first season as the head coach of the program. He has been in charge of the Ohio State offense for each of the past two years, helping the Buckeyes put one of the country’s most efficient offenses on the floor this past season.
Prior to his time at Ohio State, Justus was an assistant coach at North Carolina State under Kevin Keatts.
Justus was an assistant coach at Arizona State in 2021-22 before moving to Raleigh to join Kevin Keatts’ North Carolina State staff. Before that, he spent seven seasons at Kentucky from 2014-21: one as director of analytics, one as special assistant to the head coach and five as an assistant on John Calipari’s bench.
While at Kentucky, Justus recruited Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Bam Adebayo and Immanuel Quickley. All three ended up being top-25 picks in the NBA Draft.
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What’s more, Justus helped Kentucky sign a 2017 recruiting class that featured five top-20 prospects. He also assisted the Wildcats in securing the top class in the 2020 cycle. That year, ESPN named Justus one of the nation’s top 40 coaches under 40 years old.
Justus played his college ball at UNC Wilmington, where he was a team captain as a senior and helped the Seahawks win the CAA twice, booking trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2002 and 2003.
He got his start coaching as an assistant at Elon from 2004-08. Justus spent the next six years as a high school coach, first at Woodberry Forest in Virginia and then at Davidson Day in North Carolina.
Now after two seasons as a top assistant for Jake Diebler on the Ohio State staff, Joel Justus is moving on to a new role with a new program. He’ll be on the staff at Vanderbilt, and Ohio State will need to find a new offensive guru.