In demandNot long after ousted coach Billy Gillispie decided it would be a good idea to race a news crew through his offices, rumors of who would be his replacement began burning up the internet.
And why not? It's one of the top jobs in sports. Head coach at the institution that has more NCAA tournament appearances than any other school. A rabid and knowledgeable fanbase. Ashley Judd. All that.
The first name that was tossed around as Gillispie's replacement was Billy Donovan, but Florida quickly shot that down. John Calipari, another big name on the early list, followed suit. Former Wildcat Travis Ford, currently doing good things at Oklahoma State, is a possibility, as isVillanova's Jay Wright and Xavier's Sean Miller, but two Big Ten coaches are rising quickly.
One is Tom Izzo and he's a hell of a coach. The other just so happens to be the coach of your favorite team. And while Izzo would be a better get for UK, he's a Michigan native and is likely using the episode as a bargaining chip for more love from the Spartans.
Matta, on the other hand, is not a native of the state he coaches in and quite frankly, has several reasons to be interested should Kentucky come calling. I realize that's probably blasphemy to some of you, but let's face it, Kentucky is a better job.
At Ohio State there's the morgue that's known as the Schottenstein Center, playing second fiddle to one of the biggest football programs in the nation and, well, no Ashley Judd.
There are certainly compelling reasons for Matta to hang around in Columbus (dollar-dollar-bill, y'all), but as long as he's putting up 20+ wins per season, this will be something to fret about whenever a big-time job opens up.
Outside of the two Elite Eight games tipping off later today, there are a couple of other reasons to tune in as the Lady Buckeyes square-off against #2 seed Stanford (in Berkeley, no less) at 11:30pm and the Ohio State hockey team meets top-seeded Boston at 5:30pm (ESPN2).
Comments
I have to be honest in my assessment..... Matta is a great coach, not good--great! A great Basketball coach at a primarilly football program is a mismatch. We Buckeye fans can say anything that we want, but when push comes to shove we cant wait for Football season, we talk about football on the basketball blogs, and the day after the Tourney run was over we all turned the page to spring football.
I HOPE and PRAY that Matta stays and the University should do whatever it can to keep him, but the reality is Basketball is not king in columbus and a guy like Matta may want to be the King instead of being back page to the football program.
Wow. I really hope he stays. Matta is the reason why Columbus is even talking about basketball these last few years.
Mark my words...Matta stays.
I'm not sure why UK would want him. This is a guy that can recruit great talent but clearly not get the most out of it. Anyone could get Cook, Conley, and Oden to a championship game. We lose nothing if he leaves. Bring Bob Knight home.
I love it when schools fire coaches without thinking about who is available or will come to their school. Tubby must be laughing hard right now. My guess is Sean Miller from X.
Want to see why Thad will stay?
Northland vs. Princeton 8:30 tonight on SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland Indians channel).
If he leaves, we are coming for your head....Henry the VIII style...LOL
just don't see Thad being dumb enough to get sucked into the mess that is UK. let's face it: a ton of teams have passed them. they aren't the kings of the basketball world they used to be. and talk about pressure....
Thad is king of Ohio State basketball. why trade that to be under the microscope at a place where the fans are never satisfied and are constantly carping that you aren't as good as Rupp the Racist, or Pitinio (whoops) or Tubby Smith (double whoops)...
I don't see Matta as a great coach. Great recruiter, decent coach.
His teams at OSU have been frustrating to watch from the get-go. Even the Oden/Conley team. He ignores his big men, which is odd, since he's so good at recruiting them. Remember when Oden dominated in the NCG? His guys still dribbled up the court and heaved 3's. This year was a great example too. We know Lauderdale isn't an offensive firepower, and Mullens was not polished, but at least dump the ball in to open up the perimeter a little. And the zone was excruciating to watch at times.
Is that Sullinger? I'm sure Thad could lure his class to UK.
The girls play in the PM.
The Ohio boys state BB finals are on STO all day. To me, that's the best thing going on the tube. Matta's not going anywhere because of his class of 2010.
Zone was a product of lack of depth... nothing more (in my opinion).. I still say he is a great coach to win 20+ games every year no matter where he has been.
not saying he goes, but he seems like a guy that wants to be the big fish, Lets face it .. at OSU Tressel is the big fish and Thad is little brother.... I hope he stays!
As I said to the guy above, what makes you think those guys wouldn't follow him to UK? Better bball school, not that far away.
That's kind of my point. Winning 20+ games isn't hard when you're a great recruiter. GREAT recruiter, decent (maybe "good") coach.
there are 2 buckeyes in that game and one kid is going to Xavier.
Don't you think Ohio State is big enough to have a great Football and Basketball program? I sure do. Thad has got a good thing going here. He is bringing in the top talent in the nation. He's got some talent next year and a #1 class coming in 2010. Those kids aren't going to Ohio State just because of Matta.
Better bball school maybe, but I don't know what UK expects to get from Matta, over the last two years Gillispie was 40-27. Matta was 46-24. If he was given a couple more years at UK to recruit his guys and get them playing his style, Gillispie would probably end up surpassing Matta. If you ask me, UK made a mistake by firing the guy. If Matta goes to Kentucky, he will win games and he will recruit, but he won't do enough of either to stick around longer than Gillispie did.
Those kids aren't coming to Ohio State to play for Thad Matta. They are coming to Ohio State because they are Ohio Kids.
Uk isn't a better basketball school then Ohio State anymore. UK hasn't been a factor on a National level in years.
Ohio State has had 4 first rounders in two years with another one coming this year. Bottom line is Thad does a good job of keeping Ohio Kids at home. Ohio is a great basketball state. Far better than people give credit for.
You may have UK confused with IU. They are still basketball relevant, if only because the SEC sucks.
then how do you explain the Indy boys he recruits?
Because these kids are probably too young to remember when UK was a BB powerhouse. The one bad thing goiin for the Bucks is VC arena as Jason wrote.
How 'bout some props for the boys from U of Findlay? They just capped off a perfect 36-0 season with an overtime buzzer beater to win the D2 national title. All roster players are four year players hailing from Ohio.
Played golf with someone in the department yesterday who says Matta to Kentucky is a done deal. Just need to iron out contract implications (at OSU and UK). What effect does anyone think this will have on the class of 2010???
I played golf with your mom yesterday and she told me your full of shit.
spot on....LOL
Sibert v Sullinger. Was going to put that in the post, but forgot about it when I pub'd it.
Stay tuned...
Ya they own the NIT TLB.
Cook played on the AAU team with ODEN, and Conley. Im sure that was a factor. They would have played for IU if the shit didn't hit the fan. Point is any coach can do what Matta has done. He's no Bobby Knight.
If we can keep the kids in Ohio the buckeyes will be a factor every year. Michigan state takes alot of our top players as does Xavier. Point is Ohio has alot more talent then Kentucky. I'd put the all-Ohio team up against anyone.
Honestly, I hope he does leave. I sick of watching his teams underachieve. What good is talent if you sit it on the bench and don't let them develop during the year. Cook and BJ Mullens are prime examples. Having Cook come off the bench was an insult to him and Ohio State basketball fans everywhere.
lol ok i find it hard to believe that the first I would hear of this is on this blog as opposed to scout..
Watching Mizzou and UConn is making me tired. Have to wonder if we would have scored 25 points against that Missouri press.
And.........Go Buckeye Hockey!!!
If we played UConn, it would be Turner one on five.
I don't know why he would leave. Ohio State has the most money. Being "little brother" is not that bad, especially when our Football programs helps tremendously with recruiting, and our facilities (minus the arena atmosphere) are top notch.
Ohio State is job security for Matta, Kentucky is a huge risk that doesn't have any advantages over OSU.
They're getting rocked early, unfortunately.
yeah it's 6-0 and the game is just a little more than half over, kind of shows the pretty huge disparity in talent for a number of college sports
Don't know if I agree Kentucky is a better job anymore. Maybe it was 10 years ago, but things change fast in this world. Is it necessarily a good thing to have "rabid fans who want National Titles?"
Don't get me wrong, I see where you are coming from, but taking into account job security, is it truly the better job?
props!
Kentucky is the Notre Dame of basketball, where the fans have out of control expectations, and the university can't give you the dollar advantages like Ohio State or Texas.
I think what you just said could have applied to Ohio State in 2000-01 and is perhaps why Bellotti took a pass.
Lady Bucks play man at least.
seriously......some of you need a reality check if you are apparently that willing to let Matta leave.
Yes, even with job security problems, Kentucky is still one of the top jobs. What makes it that way is history and fan-support. The SEC is also worthless at basketball, so you can be a big fish in a small pond.
Your right Greg. If you look at what Ohio State has to offer it should be easy to get great players to come here. Ohio is loaded with talent anyone could recruit here. Matta is an ok coach but some fans do think he walks on water because he wins 20 games a year. Its not that hard to do people.
His in game coaching sucks. Even my girl friend can see the zone defense doesn't work. Man to Man doesn't make you anymore likely to foul it just makes it harder to box out and guard the 3.
There's no arguing Kentucky is a better Job and anyone who doesn't at least entertain the thought is nuts. That being said I don't see Thad going. UK clearly is a high pressure Job and Thad can basically stay at OSU in the best athletic dept in the country for life. Also a point many don't consider is that IU was wanting Thad last year and he didn't even interview. Being an Indiana native and shooting down a chance to become the head coach of one of the most prestigious programs in cbb says something about matta and that is that he loves being at osu
I really don't understand the down playing of Matta's accomplishments at OSU. he has by far the highest winning pct of any head coach who coaches more than 2 years at thew school. Counting this year his winning pct is .734
here are the coaches going back to 1959
Fred Taylor - .653
Eldon Miller - .592
Gary Williams - .590
Randy Ayers - .534
Jim O'Brien - .472
Notice that other than a couple of years under each coach, the program had been on a steady decline since the early 1970's. He has completely reversed that.
From 1973 until he was hired in 2005, OSU finished a season ranked a total of 5 times in those 32 years. Since then we have been ranked twice.
We went to the ncaa tourney only 10 times or once every 3.2 years, since we have been 3 times in 5 years or once every 1.66 years, and considering his 1st team was not allowed to go due to ncaa violations under the previous regime, this record is even better.
Speaking of ncaa violations, we had the violations under Ayers (Damon Flint), and then under O'Brien, plus all the surrounding scandals during both those coaches eras, (Greg Simpson, Savovic, Eaker, Macon, Bosely, etc), and Matta inherited a program in a shambles that had only had 2 - 20 win seasons in the last 15 years that had not been vacated by violations and ineligible players.
This turn around is amazing. For all those who think winning 20+ every year after taking over a program under the cloud of violations is easy, then answer why Miller, Ayers. Williams, and O'Brien, could never do it for even 3 years straight while Matta has done it for 5???
I think this should answer some speculation...
http://www.osusilverbullet.com...
Well put. I certainly appreciate what Matta has done for our program. Also consider that Matta's success here is with underclassmen. Even though though they are highly talented they still need to make the transition from high school to D1 ball. If I'm not mistaken I think that's why he has used zone the last two years because it's quicker for the newbies to pick up and implement.
Those stats aren't correct. Ohio State had to vacate alot of wins due to the NCAA. Anyone can coach 5 NBA first rounders to 20 wins. The guy can recruit he just can't coach.
Agree. If you're finding a reason to hate on Matta at OSU, then you're just bitter.
Thank you. That answered absolutely nothing.
We may not have Ashley Judd, but we seem to get several visits a season from Erin Andrews.
the guy can coach. he's literally been forced to rebuild almost every single year. lottery talent or not, matta is a gem.
Yeah, I don't really understand the people saying he can't coach. But then again, I don't understand the people calling for Tressel's head either, so I'm evidently in the dark.
We have Titus and the Trillion Man March and therefore EA-T. Hell with Judd.
Ron Zook, Charlie Weis
I'm a little late to the party here, but that's my take as well; Matta is a great recruiter but a "good" coach at best.