Skull Session: Farewells to Matta, the Coach's Will Farrell Obsession, Alumni Team Makes The Basketball Tournament and More

By Jason Priestas on June 7, 2017 at 5:00 am
Thad Matta and D'Angelo Russell
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Good morning, and welcome to your daily dose of Skulls. D.J. has become one with the Canadian wilderness and may not be coming back.

Can you believe Ohio State does not have a men's basketball coach yet? It's almost as if Gene Smith doesn't even want to field a team this season. After all, Urban Meyer was hired in the middle of John Cooper's third season!

If you missed it, here's a recap of our coverage of the latest developments on that front:

 SPEAKING OF THAD... the tributes continue to roll in. Mark Titus wrote an amazing goodbye to his former coach and we can only hope Thad's next move is to a beach, because this sounds like a lot of fun:

Then there’s the other possibility. In the 10 years I’ve known him, Matta has often brought up how his dream is to suddenly walk away from it all and open a beach bar in Mexico. He’s mentioned it so frequently that it stopped feeling like a joke at least five years ago. Ideally, he would’ve left Ohio State of his own accord, but now he’s left all the same. And this much I do know: If he does choose to go off the grid and open that bar, I will move heaven and earth to make sure I’m first in line.

Titus makes a strong point on the Archie Miller sweepstakes: had Ohio State fired Matta in March, Smith may still have lost out on Miller to the Hoosiers due to the prestige edge with the gig in Bloomington.

SI's Pete Thamel caught up with Archie's brother, Sean, and Celtics head coach Brad Stevens for their takes on Matta.

“A lot of coaches try to act like they don’t have an ego,” Sean Miller said. “But he’s the most egoless and selfless high-powered coach I’ve ever been around. He’s someone who was never caught up in his own deal. It’s never been about him.”

 THE MAN LOVED WILL FARRELL. Matta dropped the Grateful Dead in his Monday presser, which was unexpected, but like many of us, he had a life outside of work. Another big part of that life was an appreciation for Will Farrell.

Take his team's 83–73 win over Wisconsin in late February. Asked what he told his team during a late timeout, “The Will Ferrell, we can’t freak out, we’ve got to keep our composure. I think I used that in a timeout,” Matta deadpanned. “We did a very, very good job of answering and not panicking.”

Matta on the signed Farrell photo he had in his office...

“It's the greatest signature I've ever had on a picture. He's got an Ohio State jersey on and he wrote, ‘Thad, happy birthday, bitch. Will Farrell.’ I think about all of the things I've signed in my life and what I'd really like to write and I can't write that, but he can, so that's good.”

And then, of course, this sign, which Matta had installed above the door to the Ohio State locker room at the Schott:

 SO, ABOUT THAT REPLACEMENT. Not long after the Matta news broke Monday, our own Tim Shoemaker took a look at who Gene Smith may turn to for the job. Among those listed, there's a lot of safe hedges for Chris Holtmann of Butler right now and there's still a lot of smoke surrounding Texas' Shaka Smart and Billy Donovan, former cul-de-sac mat of Urban Meyer.

Smart has Ohio ties. He played for Kenyon, while later serving stints on the staffs at Akron and Dayton. Donovan is in the NBA now, but if you're Ohio State, you have to put the press on him and enlist Meyer for all the help he can provide.

Scout's Brian Snow, who's plugged into the hoops scene says it's time to scratch Xavier's Chris Mack, Indiana's Archie Miller and Arizona's Sean Miller off the list:

 GET THAT PAPER.Scarlet & Gray,” a hoops team made up of Ohio State alumni, was accepted into the Midwest Region of The Basketball Tournament Tuesday.

William Buford, Aaron Craft, Jon Diebler, David Lighty, Greg Oden and other former Buckeye greats will attempt to win $1.8 million in the closest thing this country has to the FA Cup. They'll hit the court for regional round action July 15 at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

 NEW TEE! There's a new tee available at Eleven Warriors Dry Goods and it's sure to quickly become a summer favorite.

 LET'S GET WEIRD. Brett Favre was an NFL quarterback before he knew what a nickel defense was... Penn State lost another five-star and now their decommitment list is better than Alabama's recruiting class... That newly-discovered exoplanet that is hotter than most stars? Thank Ohio State research for that one... Kansas City's stadium food is incredible (and incredibly bad for you)... Cavs fans for the win... Wait for it.

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