Pass the Advil With most of the Buckeye faithful focused on a possible third straight crack at a pigskin national title, Thad Matta's hoops program has been flying somewhat under the radar. That's probably a good thing considering there's been much more bad news than good news of late, especially in comparison to what Tressel has goin' on across the Olentangy.
The latest cause for pause came on America's birthday as point guard Trae Golden informed rivals that he's no longer a 2010 verbal commit to Ohio state just in time for the July evaluation period.
Some say Golden might not have been the right fit as a scoring point guard and that Matta was looking at other PG's for 2010 but Golden was still a 4 star recruit ranked as high as 9th nationally by ScoutHoops.com. If anything, I think Matta was probably only looking to complement Golden by adding a point guard more content to distribute considering Matta had Golden's verbal since last October. Matta has also said he will continue to recruit the kid but it seems a longshot that will pan out.
Any way you slice it, Golden's decommit is just the latest bump in the road. Fortunately, none of these bumps have flipped the program but either I'm paranoid or this is a program that could use a dose of good news.
As you recall, it was just last week that a freakin' high school coach got loose on Matta for his alleged mishandling of Kosta Koufos during his one year at Ohio State reviving talk that Matta was to blame for the poor player/coach relationship. Worse yet, the same clown accused Matta of sandbagging Koufos' development in an effort to keep him in town another year. My take is that such accusations are BS but being called out by a high school hack like that is still not a good thing.
Along the same lines, the Koufos rumblings had legs with some fans who felt Matta also sandbagged the development of Crazy-Quan Cook who bolted to the NBA after his freshman season amid rumors of a strained player/coach relationship.
As with Koufos, I personally choose to believe that Cook also struggled with actually being coached, as opposed to enabled, and didn't quite know how to handle being challenged but you have to wonder how much these rumors infiltrate the mind of future recruits because I'm quite certain if the players aren't already of aware of the rumblings, the assistant coaches from other schools will be more than happy to clue them in.
One thing's for sure, as much as Matta's program has reaped benefits from going after the nation's best talent, it has also seen the pitfalls of doing so with the likes of Koufos, Cook, Oden and Conley spending just one year on campus. I'm sure other programs could throw out some pretty impressive lineups if players weren't allowed to turn pro after their freshman seasons but just imagine what the '07-'08 starting lineup could've been: Oden, Koufos, Cook, Butler and Conley with Turner, Hunter and Lighty off the pine!?!
To Matta's credit (imo), he continues to chase the nation's elite although his latest one and done candidate is a local in the form of Canal Winchester's 7'1" BJ Mullens. The true back to the basket center is already Chad Ford's #3 rated NBA prospect next year meaning more of the same for a team that seems to get younger by the season.
In fact, the team is so young that it will feature exactly zero seniors in '08-'09 leaving technically one available scholarship for 2009-10 campaign although Mullens will likely free up another. Also, remember Matta has one scholly available now but he might best be served to give that up in an effort to keep the NCAA at bay in the face of sketchy APR scores impacted by one and done's like Koufos that could likely cost the Buckeyes a scholarship down the line anyway.
The last bit of sting came over a week ago with the departure of longtime Matta assistant coach John Groce who left to take the reigns down in Athens. Again, not a huge problem standing alone but still another piece of potential adversity when you consider Groce had been with Matta at three different programs and did more than his fair share on the recruiting front. Some stability, however, could come with the rehire of former Matta assistant Brandon Miller.
All this is not to predict gloom and doom for Matta's program, only to summarize what has been a less than stellar period. The good news is that while low on frontline beef, the upcoming season will feature a young team with plenty of depth and talent on the wings that could generate a very exciting brand of basketball. That is good for fans and good for potential recruits as Matta looks to lead his team back the NCAA tournament after a one year hiatus. One thing is for sure, I like the guy's track record.
So, what do you think? Is the program on a down slide or just going through a tough stretch?
Comments
You are right on the money we can disagree on Cook but I know for a fact after the season was over Diebler's dad approach someone in Cooks camp and ask questions concerning Matta and his coaching style. I also know that a problem that Cook had is Matta lwasnt forthcoming on why he benched Cook for the reason to insure his return for his soph season.
The only good news lately is that another one and doner DeShaun Thomas sured up his committment. The 2010 class still looks impressive with Wright and Sullinger even with the departure of Golden.
This is just a rough patch for the progam which doesn't have the depth as other major programs who aren't hit as badly with early departures every year.
Like you said, Matta has a great track record so I believe he knows what hes doing. (most of the time)
Britton -- Good to hear from you. Of course, you and I will disagree on Cook forever but I respect your insight and your comments on Diebs are interesting. I'm anxious to see how year two plays out for Diebler and Matta.
CL -- No doubt 2010 class is still strong with Sullinger and Wright and Stevenson makes it that much better. I'm content to give Matta all the benefit of the doubt he needs at this point. Considering what the program had become, I'm happy to have the problem of players leaving early...for now.
Good Article Chris!
I think it is just a tough month for Thad and the hoopsters. It was a matter of time before Groce took a head coaching position. Losing Golden at this point is not that big of a deal, there is over a year to get someone to replace him and as CL mentioned, that class is still solid.
I'm sure Matta will have the boys right back in the hunt this season, it is easy to forget he has won 2 Big Ten titles, an NIT championship and a NCAA runner-up in his first four seasons. These last couple of months have just been a bit shaky, but I'm just glad we can discuss this in the off season, as opposed to when OB was here and hoops didn't enter one's mind until January.
Olentangy is my favorite flavor of Gatorade.
This is BS....we all saw Cook get demoted to the D-league this year & Matta stuck with Diebler all year when he could never really find a rythm. Kosta made a dumb decision and might see the same fate as Cook. Although I think they both have the talent to be solid NBA players down the line.....I think they both would have been a lot better of staying another year (maybe 2).
Everyone is quick to forget that Cook didn't like to play D.
It's hard to argue a guy's talent development when in on year, one of his players was drafted first overall and another 2 were drafted in the first round. Give me a break.
These guys come up with everyone telling them how they are the best thing to ever set foot on a court and then they get a big dose of reality when they don't dominate a the collegiate level. When that happens it's got to be somebody else's fault right? That being said, Matta is opening himself up to this with the type of recruits he's going after. I think he's doing everything right, but Thad and fans of the program need to get used to this sort of thing happening because this won't be the last time.
He also didn't like taking care of the rock.
Hawkeye State-
Does that mean you are drinking the Ohio State Gatorade now? I sense a little Buckeye love from you.
Boeckman Fett your name says it all. You should change your name to int-fett. Only two things can happen when boeckman throws deep and both of those are bad.
Don't forget also that Kosta sucked ass earlier on in the year. His high school coach wants to give Thad shit, but Koufos' footwork was terrible early on. How many times did he travel because he couldn't figure out how to move with one pivot foot. Thad coached him up and we saw him improve at the end of the year.
As for Thad hiding Cook on the bench last year to force him to stay... That is retarded. Does anybody remember Ron Lewis? I think he was slightly better, oh and played actual defense. Cook and Koufos are both very talented, but raw and in need of player development.
Woody, I'm pretty sure there were several Robiskie TD's that happened when Boeckman through deep.....is that 1 of the "2 bad things that happen when he throws deep?"
Brandon Miller was hired back. That should help Thad and the staff with coaching and recruiting.
Kyle's on it...Miller announcement from a couple hours ago:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/p...
This is the truth during Cook and Matta's last meeting that also included Cooks Mom and Coach Powell. Matta shared his concern and downright dissatifaction with Cook and why he was benched. The skinny of his concerns were his work ethic, maturity. During the season Matta never once stated any problem with his work ethic or maturity and even started Cook the Minny game because he stated Cook had been working hard. Towards the end of the meeting Matta said he should have done some things different and Cook said he wanted to test the draft waters.
By all standards of a 21st pick Cook did well with 8.9pts ppg and 3 rebs in 59 games and even in the 3 games in D-League he avg. 19 pts.
Boeckman talk on a basketball post!? Buckeye Nation has gone mad.
My prediction: Boeckman comes out throwing like Dan Marino in his prime and shocks the world.
or..
He could still be the same guy as last year. Most likely somewhere in between.
Anyone that would defend Boeckman's deep ball is a fool. He needs to prove himself against USC then I'll shut up.
Woody, I simply stated that he threw a lot of deep TD's to Robiskie......which is true.....the real fool would be someone who read into that comment to much. I DID NOT comment on whether or not he throws a great deep ball. He does infact underthrow a lot of deep balls which our receivers are good enough to save.......however, if you expect to have a Dan Marino back there every year you need a reality check. The coaches simply need to explain to Todd that he is less likely to throw an INT if he overthrows deep balls.