Thad Matta (OSU's All Time Winningest Coach & 3x B1G COY, Butler HC)

[LitlBuck]

“When you work for Thad, you know how it is,” Miller said Wednesday. “He’ll walk around with a smile on his face, but he’s going to try and stomp on your head the first chance you get.”

That description is as good as any you’ll find for Matta, the 46-year-old coach who must be counted among the advantages for the No. 6 Buckeyes (25-9) as they prepare for the No. 11 Flyers (23-10). According to Stats Inc., Matta’s 78.1 career winning percentage in March and April (57-16) is second in the nation behind only Kentucky’s John Calipari. His 23-11 record in the NCAA Tournament leaves him ninth in winning percentage among coaches in the tournament with at least 10 games of NCAA experience.

Stomp them with a smile: Ohio State's Thad Matta facing another Miller in NCAA Tournament as one of March's best coaches

I would encourage Ohio State basketball fans to read this article. It is extremely good about Matta's management style and how much he cares about his players.

 

[Dryden]

Matta revealed as #20 on ESPN's top college coaches countdown this month, with the caveat that the list places an emphasis on recency and not legacy.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/top50coaches20/no-20-ohio-state-thad-matta

That's how good Matta has been at Ohio State for pretty much his entire tenure -- which began, it should be noted, at a program ineligible for the NCAA tournament thanks to former coach Jim O'Brien's recruiting violations. Within three years, Matta led Greg Oden and Mike Conley to the cusp of a national title. He won the NIT the next season. From 2009-10 to 2012-13 -- as the Evan Turner era gave way to that Jared Sullinger-led 34-3 monster in 2010-11 -- the Buckeyes went 123-27, won three straight Big Ten titles, went to four Sweet 16s, two Elite Eights and one Final Four. The best team, that 2010-11 group, was a Brandon Knight buzzer-beater away from the Elite Eight, because the NCAA tournament is cruel. A year later, Sullinger got back to the Final Four, but had to try to score over Kansas center Jeff Withey. In 2013, Matta coaxed a mostly average Buckeyes team into a destructive defensive force, the kind of late-season surge that defines great college coaches. Unfortunately, it ran into Wichita State in the Elite Eight, because, you guessed it, the NCAA tournament is cruel.

Matta has taken a program from the brink of scandal and made it one of the elite destinations in the country. And he's invigorated a fan base that, let's face it, was only marginally more interested in basketball than Texas fans. Value City Arena is a legitimately difficult place to play now. There are maybe six or seven programs in the country that have been as consistently successful as the Buckeyes under Matta. If we were ranking coaches on the past decade, Matta might be top five.

It's tough to know what next season holds. Craft is gone. So, surprisingly enough, is Ross. Matta has three four-star recruits en route. There are no guarantees he'll rank higher in this list at the end of next season, but it's hard to imagine him falling any lower. Under Matta, the 2013-14 season -- successful by any reasonable measure -- is as close to a down year as the Buckeyes have ever had.

 

[Dryden]

SBNation's Thomas Beindit ranks the 16 best Big Ten teams of the past 10 years by KenPom. Ohio State leads with five teams, Michigan St and Wisconsin tie with four apiece, while single seasons from Illinois, Indiana and Michigan grab the three remaining spots.

http://www.btpowerhouse.com/2014/6/17/5812204/the-best-big-ten-teams-of-the-last-decade-basketball

#2 - 2011 Ohio State
#3 - 2007 Ohio State
#4 - 2012 Ohio State
#9 - 2013 Ohio State
#14 - 2010 Ohio State

 

[OHSportsFan]

As @OSU_Buckguy noted-

10 year anniversary for Coach Matta at THE Ohio State University.

 

[NFBuck]

As @OSU_Buckguy noted-

10 year anniversary for Coach Matta at THE Ohio State University.

Almost every Buckeye fan remembers where they were when the news broke that Urban was coming home. Not enough have the same recollection with Thad Matta. It's a shame too, because the impacts are both HUGE. Matta's are probably bigger given what he was walking into. I hope he's here at least another 10...

 

[brodybuck21]

Almost every Buckeye fan remembers where they were when the news broke that Urban was coming home. Not enough have the same recollection with Thad Matta. It's a shame too, because the impacts are both HUGE. Matta's are probably bigger given what he was walking into. I hope he's here at least another 10...

I still remember where I was. I am just as happy today hes our coach as the day he was hired.

 

[Bucks21]

Love this man, if anyone gets a chance to attend a practice, do it, its fun to watch this man shape the team.

 

[LitlBuck]

Matta cannot recruit

 

[DZ83CK]

Almost every Buckeye fan remembers where they were when the news broke that Urban was coming home. Not enough have the same recollection with Thad Matta. It's a shame too, because the impacts are both HUGE. Matta's are probably bigger given what he was walking into. I hope he's here at least another 10...

I remember where I was when the news broke that O'Brien had been fired, that was a great day!

 

[LitlBuck]

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Maybe it's because it's been a few years since Thad Matta has brought in megastars like Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and Jared Sullinger, or maybe it's because Ohio State hasn't always had big classes.

But for whatever reason, there seems to be a notion that Matta hasn't taken care of business on the recruiting trail as effectively as his first few years leading the Buckeyes program.

Matta has a sense that there's some displeasure from certain fans. He's not perplexed by it, though, because he hasn't bothered to think about it.

"I think people have to find something to complain about," Matta told cleveland.com. "What are we averaging? 28 wins a year in 10 years at Ohio State? I think we have a pretty good sense of what we're doing. We got it."

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2014/10/ohio_state_basketball_thad_mat.html

 

[DZ83CK]

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2014/10/ohio_state_basketball_thad_mat.html

Yes he has done a great job. But the soft nonconference schedules are something that is legitimate for fans to complain about, and they contribute to slightly inflated regular season win totals. This year's team is certainly no exception to the trend, 11 home nonconference games and you can't get more than 1 out of 11 against a high major team? That is the scheduling strategy of a bit lesser program like a Pittsburgh or Cincinnati, and not what should be the case at OSU when they're as good as they are now.

 

[wigmon]

There are some complaints about missing on the highest level of talent, but I think the biggest complaint lately is that from 2011 on, the classes haven't panned out too well so far and there has been some pretty good local talent that has performed pretty well at other B1G schools. I won't really count Burke because we had Craft and Scott was clearly the better player when commitments were being taken, but we could have had a good chance at Lavert in '12 and the staff went harder after ADV, which was a clear miss in evaluating talent. It might be a matter of his own doing, but I think Mattas recruiting was so good through the 2010 class, that its what we've come to expect as fans.

The '14 and '15 classes look to be solid, about on par with the '07 and '11 classes in terms of player rankings. The '07 class turned out pretty well (other than KK leaving earlier than he should have), but the '11 class has been a little disappointing. Hopefully these next 2 classes get us back on track.

 

[MaxBuck]

... I think the biggest complaint lately is that from 2011 on, the classes haven't panned out too well so far

2011–12 Ohio State 31–8 13–5 T–1st NCAA Final Four
2012–13 Ohio State 29–8 13–5 T–2nd NCAA Elite Eight
2013–14 Ohio State 25–10 10–8 5th NCAA Second Round

 

[Mike80]

2011–12 Ohio State 31–8 13–5 T–1st NCAA Final Four
2012–13 Ohio State 29–8 13–5 T–2nd NCAA Elite Eight
2013–14 Ohio State 25–10 10–8 5th NCAA Second Round

2011-2012's recruit class was Sam Thompson, Scott, Amir, LaQ and Trey MacDonald. For all the hype, the only one who has developed has been Thompson and he's still limited. For Q's awesome tournament the next year, did anyone really consider him an elite talent? The rest are inconsistent/mediocre.

2012-2013's class was ADV. He's already gone and didn't do much more than give a shot of energy here or there but nothing really sustained.

2013-2014's class is Kam Williams (who we haven't seen yet) and Loving, who shows potential but is hardly done.

Your observations are flawed. The teams those years, especially the first two, were carried by the 2009 and 2010 recruit classes.

 

[MaxBuck]

2011-2012's recruit class was Sam Thompson, Scott, Amir, LaQ and Trey MacDonald. For all the hype, the only one who has developed has been Thompson and he's still limited. For Q's awesome tournament the next year, did anyone really consider him an elite talent? The rest are inconsistent/mediocre.

2012-2013's class was ADV. He's already gone and didn't do much more than give a shot of energy here or there but nothing really sustained.

2013-2014's class is Kam Williams (who we haven't seen yet) and Loving, who shows potential but is hardly done.

Your observations are flawed. The teams those years, especially the first two, were carried by the 2009 and 2010 recruit classes.

The 11-12 class included Q (top scorer on the 2013-14 team), Scott (all-B1G defense) and good contributors in Amir, Thompson and McDonald. There was essentially no 2012-13 class. I read the earlier comment to say that since 2011 our recruits haven't panned out well, rather than recruits in the 2011 and more recent classes haven't panned out.

Recruits we've had since 2011 have yet to display excellence aside from Q, but I think Scott and Thompson have a chance to demonstrate it in 2014-15, and McDonald looks to continue to develop. If you want to say we've had somewhat disappointing recruiting classes in 2011-12, 12-13 and 13-14, I can't argue. But the players we have coming in for 2014-15 are the most promising, perhaps, since Oden-Conley-Cook.