As we watch the search for a new head basketball coach at Ohio State the basketball program has sort of in layman's terms "hit a wall"! We see so much interest out there in this coaching search as is evident with the number of posters on this site and all other social media and message boards, pod cast coverage, national and local media coverage. So there is a sleeping giant in the CBB world waiting to be resurrected. The problem is that with Thad Matta's medical problems after a whirlwind start to his tenure here at OSU and Chris Holtman's kinda of dull personality and coaching style which led to poor records and attendance.
Oh the good old days of 2006 -2014 under Matta the attendance the stir and the fan interest. As to evidence of the big difference, my son was a preteen and big time basketball fan, he had every OSU jersey number that he could find and if you went to a local high school game or any public gathering or youth practice or pick up game, (we live 100 miles from Columbus) you would see kids wearing OSU basketball gear they could tell you every player on the roster and knew their record and the state of the season.
The point that I am making is that Thad had the OSU basketball machine running on high octane because he had exciting players he played exciting basketball and they could compete with anyone! The Schott was pretty full especially against upper level competition and it got the name "the Nuthouse".
We are seeing a little sample of this interest returning with this 6-1 resurgence led by Jake Diebler. The team plays defense (no 6 currently in the adjusted ranking since he took over) they move and are pushing the ball every chance they get. They are exciting to watch!
So to whoever makes the final decision be sure to get a coach who can bring all this excitement and $$$ back to Columbus, a guy who can coach defense and recruit who is a PROVEN winner. Because money is the motivator of modern college athletics and merchandise and tickets and all the other interest that comes with exciting play and winning are out there to be opened up again. We just need the right coach!!
