Thad would like one of Roy's ringsWhile Buckeye basketball has been resurrected and had a tremendous amount of success under Thad Matta, there is certainly a lot our humble leader can learn about building an elite program. Looking around the country, there are some great coaches who have made their mark on the game, but when you talk about building greatness at a school over long periods of time there is nobody better to take notes from than college basketball's newest national champion, UNC coach Roy Williams.
While Williams has been blessed with recruiting the nation's best talent at prestigious universities like Kansas and North Carolina, there is something to be said about what he has done with that talent and his strategies in obtaining the talent that plays for him. When you look at Williams' programs and other successful programs across college hoops there are some common factors that go into building a program with a winning tradition. There are many factors to success at the college level, but five characteristics stand out more to me than the others. These common factors are senior leadership, depth, recruiting pieces that fit the system, ability to dictate the style of the game, and, simply, defense. Let's take a look at each one of these areas of a championship caliber program, how they apply to OSU, and what Thad Matta can do to reach these in the future.
Senior Leadership
It is important to have senior leadership on any team for many reasons, but most importantly seniors are the smartest players on the court, have the most in-game experience, and are looked up to in times of hardship and struggle. A coach needs to be able to groom leadership amongst his players so that when the said player is ready to take the reigns of the team as a senior leader he is fully prepared for all responsibilities. Roy Williams has done an excellent job of that, but part of the job he has done has to do with the fact that he continually has players who stay four years so that they may become seniors. Thad Matta has had the unfortunate experience of having Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Daequan Cook, Kosta Koufos, Eric Wallace, BJ Mullens, and Anthony Crater all depart Columbus early to either enter the NBA or because of transfers. Thad's most successful year in Columbus is when he had a mix of star recruits and veteran leaders in 2006-2007, and while he's had star recruits continue to come in, he hasn't been able to add the senior leadership to those classes because there are no seniors (or mature seniors in the case of Jamar Butler) around anymore to lead the younger guys. This will be imperative in the coming years with guys like Diebler, Lauderdale, and Lighty expected to stay for their full tenures at OSU, but is even more important in our next category, recruiting.
Recruiting Players Who Fit The System
While I will never turn down a recruit with the talent or potential of those we have had come through Columbus, you have to recruit players who fit your system and want to grow at the college level within that system to better themselves on and off the court. Look at North Carolina once again, and you see great players like Danny Green, Marcus Ginyard, Deon Thompson, and others who were not of the same caliber of guys like Greg Oden, but were recruited because they fit well in Roy Williams' system and could grow into very solid players in Chapel Hill. David Lighty is an example of one of those types of players, but instead of trying to hook the big fish like BJ Mullens, it wouldn't be so bad for Thad to go after guys that may be the next level down as recruits, but are willing to put in the work to be excellent basketball players for Ohio State (like Cameron Wright of 2010). With the strategy of recruiting the players who best fit your system, rather than recruiting the best players and trying to fit them into your system, you build a successful program, which is much better than building one successful team.
Depth
While recruiting and senior leadership are important, depth could be one of the biggest on-court keys to a national championship season. Look at the successful teams in the nation right now-UNC, Michigan State, UCONN, Villanova, Louisville-and one common factor among all of them is that they have depth. The ability to avoid injury problems, foul trouble within games, fatigue issues, and other problems that occur throughout a basketball season are invaluable and can only be done by having a ton of depth. Look at this year's OSU team for example and although the season may not have been that much different, I can guarantee you it would have been a lot easier (at least to watch) if the Bucks had David Lighty playing on the court and teaching the younger players about what it takes to win at the college level. Depth is a result of being able to recruit solid players across the board and one-and-done's don't help either, but with the class Thad has coming in a few years, depth should not be a problem for the 2010-2011 OSU team, but I'm not sure I can say the same for next year's squad.
Dictating The Style Of Basketball Played
Both championship teams, Michigan State and North Carolina, were able to dictate the style of basketball played during their games. Although you didn't see it last night, MSU generally slowed the game down, played excellent defense, and took advantage of their ability to play inside-outside and take high percentage shots. UNC was able to speed the game up and beat their opponents every time down the court in transition. The problem with Ohio State basketball this year was that there was no distinguishable consistent game plan on the offensive side of the floor and the team continually played down and into the game of its competition. While Evan Turner is a great player, he can't do everything himself and letting him try to do everything on his own is no way to be a successful basketball team. Thad Matta must be able to establish a style of basketball he wants to play and find a way to execute that game plan every game of the season. If you're playing the game the way you want to play it, it is much easier to win basketball games compared to trying to win at somebody else's game.
Defense
Finally, but definitely not the least important, is defense. Every championship caliber team plays great defense, and not only that, but they can throw different defensive strategies at you so that it is harder to adjust. The Buckeyes certainly did not execute the latter this season, and even their base zone defense was not too stifling. UNC had an explosive offense this season and while some criticized their defensive efforts at times, you may be surprised to learn that they had a top 20 ranked defense in the nation. Their ability to force turnovers and move the ball in transition was key to their championship run and if you can get the ball from your opponent to limit their opportunities, and more importantly create your own points off of these turnovers, the formula for a win is at your fingertips. The Buckeyes need to be more creative and aggressive on the defensive side of the ball next season if they want to be a winner and will need to change things drastically fro the past season.
With these characteristics built into the philosophy of the Ohio State basketball program, Thad Matta is guaranteed to have continued success during his time in Columbus. The state of Ohio State basketball is in good shape now, but excellence could be on the horizon and the blueprint for the next national championship run in Columbus can be laid if these practices are added to what is currently in place. Hey, it worked for Roy Williams, why can't it work for Thad Matta too?
Comments
While I do agree with your article on how to create a successfull team it doesn't help that UNC is UNC and tOSU is tOSU in basketball. It's the facts. Just the same as in football. I think tOSU benefits a great deal from the one and down rule now in place before going pro. Guys are wanting to go there to stay close to home or simply because it is tOSU. Imagine if we would have undoubtedly had Lebron for a year.
All I can think about is, Kobe and Kevin Garnett have done this to college basketball. I think they are both great, but their success has led to one and done for a lot of guys who either weren't ready or good enough.
Bottom line is you have to have some upperclassman lineup consistancy from year to year. One and dones are holding back this program.
Last night was a much bigger beatdown. In the LSU game, the momentum switched to the Buckeyes twice in the second half, and at the end it was not far fetched to think OSU could cut it to 7 and have a shot with an on side kick. That being said, losing control of the game in the second quarter two years in a row gave most of the USA an impression that it was as bad as the Florida fiasco
This is all well and good, but at the same time painting with too broad a brush when it comes to Matta's recruiting: I think of all the players mentioned here, Oden was the only surefire one-and-done - and every single coach in the country would have jizzed in his pants like Andy Samberg to have him for that one year.
Conley? I don't remember one single person thinking that he would be NBA-ready after just one season before that season actually happened. Ditto for Koufos, whose early exit was almost entirely a function of his blowing up in the NIT - again, largely unforeseeable AND unforeseen by pretty much everybody. Mullens' case is more debatable, especially given his impoverished upbringing, but you still don't ever turn down a recruit with that combination of size and potential. So it would seem that Matta's a tad snakebit with those three.
More criticism would seem to be in order when it comes to Cook and Crater, where due diligence that might have smoked out their flakiness, meddlesome parents and likelihood to bolt/wash out was probably lacking. But hey, at least they didn't shoot at any teammates' cars or pump-and-dash while holding. Still, here again Matta's caught in a bind: yes, he needs to recruit parts for a successful team, but that's exactly what Crater was supposed to be - a true PG for a team that needed one.
Another thing that needs to be kept in mind is that we're still fairly early in Matta's tenure (at least from the viewpoint of "building a program" if that's what we want him to do), and we sometimes forget what an empty cupboard combined with a third-rate (and corrupted) recruiting apparatus he inherited.
gbm is onto something, and it ties in with what I think OUGHT to be the legit criticism of B11 hoops: those "next level down" recruits that Alex mentions, who pan out so fantastically for the top ACC/Big East schools, are just a tough get for a place like Ohio State - they're good enough to pretty much go wherever they want, so why would they NOT pick those schools over the B11, where their sport is always, always going to be 2nd banana, and where you have to play annoying, frustrating, bruising games against Wisconsin and games against teams like Penn State (notwithstanding this year's success), Nerdwestern, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota year in and year out that nobody gives a shit about? And maybe have your success in crucial moments impacted by Ed Hightower? But I digress...
Myself, I'm willing to wait and see how the '10 class plays out before I render any sort of verdict - even an interim one - on Matta's tenure. But maybe that's just because I'm old enough to remember a lot of Eldon Miller's.
Personally, I am just excstatic that basketball season is FINALLY over and we can concentrate on what really matters.....the 'ol pigskin
I fistpumped when that final whistle blew, and couldn't have cared less about the outcome of the game
excellent analysis. while it is true that tOSU is not North Cary (and aren't we glad when fb season rolls around) the general principles here are what we need so that tOSU basketball can rise to higher levels. will we ever threaten to win all the nc's in bb, and leave the big boys of college bb (like Louisville, UConn and NC) out on a consistent basis? prolly not. but Sparty made a great run and we could too. less "one and done" players and more "staying the whole way" guys are the biggest key, imo.
and now on to what matters most: football!
Amen
I hate to say it, but there just seems to be something about Matta that players don't like. While Duke and UNC can recruit the best players AND get them to stay a few years, players can't wait to get out of Columbus as soon as possible - even if their draft stock has dropped and everyone agrees that they would benefit from more time in college (Koufos, Cook, Mullens). Worse yet, guys like Cook and Koufos had nothing nice on the way out. Add in Crater and you have a bunch of guys that aren't exactly seeing playing at OSU as the best time of their lives. Perhaps all those guys are headcases or bad kids. But I think we also have to wonder if Matta's a huge dickhead, or he's saying anything to get kids to come here and then pulling the switcheroo or something.
the football post is almost up, right?
pretty please?
In my book Matta has only recruited one kid who we knew was one and done before he got here. Other than that, i really believe Thad thought most of them would stay at least two or three.
Probably 85% of Div.1 kids have a chance to be one and done, otherwise you wouldnt be Div.1 !!!! So dont point the finger at Thad for recruiting good players, we could be Bobby Knight at Texas Tech and just hope to make the tourney every year. If you want Buckeye bball to take off, then this is what you have to deal with.
Im so sick and tired of everyone whining about Matta, he's the best thing to happen to OSU bball since Jerry Lucas, PERIOD.
Now for God's sake, can we act like a football school and talk gridiron!!!!
Our humble leader, we are TRLUY not worthy.
http://www.daytondailynews.com...
85%????
no way
As I said, I am not going to say no to those players, but everyone knew Mullens was one and done for sure and it was widely said Daequan would have jumped to the pros too if there wasn't a 1-year rule. Conley for sure was a shocker, but Koufos was a guy who was projected as a lottery-top 10 pick before OSU and at most was staying two years.
All I'm saying, is that I wouldn't mind having a Kenny Frease or Yancy Gates come through every now and then more often and would like to sell these kids on being part of a successful program built on the standards listed above and the intangibles of the coaching staff and university.
That being said, nothing like good old football in the cold today-as it should be played.
My bad, I was a little overboard there, I was really saying, that many kids at least have a chance to leave before their senior year.
Best since Lucas? What about jimmy jackson? I'd rather have JJ then matta. I think JJ should come back and coach at Ohio State. You know he could recruit and coach better then Matta.
I have credible information (straight from the player himself) that another member of Ohio State's basketball team will be following BJ Mullens into the NBA Draft. The announcement should come sometime in the next couple days. Stay tuned...