Read an article years later where Thad was talking about this game. Assistants were talking about a play to get 2 and tie the game. He asked them if they really wanted to go another 5 minutes against those guys, and the rest is history.
HOW ONE SHOT 10 YEARS AGO CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR OHIO STATE BASKETBALL
In that Ohio State huddle, there was some confusion as to who was going to get the final shot for the Buckeyes.
“I still remember the timeout and the coaches said, ‘Go to (Terence) Dials, go to Dials, go to Dials,’” Matta recalled.
“And I said, ‘Fellas do you really want to play these guys for five more minutes? We’re going to go for the win.'”
When Matta made that declaration, the Ohio State players were quite elated. Matta said he had to calm his guys down and tell them, "Hey, we still need to make the shot first."
Matta called a play for Sylvester, who had already set his career-high in that game with 22 points prior to the final possession. The 6-foot-7 inch junior didn’t exactly give Matta a ringing endorsement for his play call.
“He was kind of like, ‘You’re going to me?'” Matta said with a smile.
Sylvester had a little bit of a different recollection of how things went down.
"I could have sworn that when Thad started drawing that play up I went all Jimmy Chitwood on him and said something along the lines of, ‘Coach I’ll knock it down, I’ll make it,’ he said. "He was probably thinking, ‘Yeah, right.’"
Still a great article:
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...changed-everything-for-the-ohio-state-program
