“It’s been good,” the former Centerville High School star point guard said. “Getting with guys and coaches that are about the right stuff has been really refreshing, so I think we have a chance to be really good, and guys are coming together. We all care about each other and want what’s best for the team, so I think when you have those things, you got a shot.”
Cupps played at VCA once during his two-year stint at Indiana, where he missed most of last season and took a medical redshirt because of a lower body injury.
The 6-foot-2 point guard scored two points and handed out two assists in 26 minutes on Feb. 6, 2024, in Columbus, but Indiana’s 76-73 win is more memorable for the Buckeyes blowing an 18-point lead in the second half.
That stands out as one of the turning points in the tenure of coach Chris Holtmann, who went from getting a crucial win in front of the home crowd to suffering a fifth straight loss in a season that was already in free fall.
Credit: DaytonDailyNews
Holtmann was fired less than two weeks later, opening the door for Jake Diebler to become interim coach for the rest of the season.
Diebler led the Buckeyes to an 8-3 mark and was rewarded by incoming director of athletics Ross Bjork naming him the permanent head coach in the spring.
After a frustrating first full season (17-15) at the helm, Diebler did a lot of work on his roster this spring, an overhaul that focused more on the front court but also brought in Cupps.
Ohio’s Mr. Basketball for 2022 might not fill an obvious need on the court — Ohio State’s best player the last two seasons has been point guard Bruce Thornton, who returns for his senior season — but he could still play an important role overall.
“I think some of that’s got to play out, right?” Diebler replied during an interview in June to a question about Cupps’ role. “But the one thing I know about Gabe is he’s really tough. He knows the game at a high level. And his intangibles — the way he can impact the game may not always show up with stats. However, he also can produce.”
That might mean backing up Thornton, playing alongside him — or both.
“Bruce is a great player,” Cupps said. “You know, it’s always a tough night when you’re having to guard him, so just playing with him has been great, just playing off of each other.”
Diebler admitted Thornton has carried a heavy load as the team’s primary ball-handler and best scorer the last two seasons, so it’s not hard to see a player like Cupps coming in to let him move off the ball at times.
“If we were playing by ourselves, we might not get as many catch-and-shoot 3s, but now with both of us, I can get in the lane, I can kick to him, get him catch-and-shoot 3, and he can do the same thing for me,” Cupps said. “So I think we both can improve each other, when we’re on the court together.”
Diebler, who grew up playing for his father, Keith, also sees some of himself in Cupps, whose father Brook coached him at Centerville after a successful run at Graham.
“He’s better than I was, but I’ve just always seen a lot of who I was as a player in him,” said Diebler, who played collegiately at Valparaiso. “And I just like that, and I think it impacts winning. I think it’s important. I think it’s impactful.”
At the same time, the younger Cupps also sees some of his dad’s style in his new head coach.
“I think the way Diebler coaches is he’s hard on guys, but he also cares a ton about them, and he’s with us in the trenches a lot. So I think that’s the biggest thing to me is like, he’s not gonna ask us to do something that he doesn’t truly believe in and that he won’t go to the ends of the earth to do himself.
“So I think that reminds me a lot of my dad in high school with how he coaches, so it’s been very comforting to kind of have a sense of familiarity with the coaching style.”
Working out at the Schottenstein Center also brings back memories for Cupps, who recalls making the annual trek there when it hosted the OHSAA state tournament in his younger days.
“I remember because I would always miss some elementary and middle school classes for it,” he recalled with a smile.
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