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

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NFBuck said:
Going back home again. Will take over as HC for Butler. Hope he knocks it out of the park.
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Butler hires Thad Matta: Ex-Ohio State, Xavier coach returns as Bulldogs program makes splash move

"Thad Matta is an exceptional choice to lead our men's basketball program," Butler president James Danko said. "In Thad, Butler is getting a first-class person who has put together one of the strongest résumés in all of college basketball over the past few decades. He is a Bulldog who embodies the excellence and character that we hope all of our graduates aspire to achieve in their respective industries and daily life. Our basketball program is in great hands under Thad's leadership."

Entire article: https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...eturns-as-bulldogs-program-makes-splash-move/

Great hire for Butler.
 
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thad-matta-candidate-indianas-head-coaching-job.jpg


:lol:
 
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ScriptOhio said:
Butler hires Thad Matta: Ex-Ohio State, Xavier coach returns as Bulldogs program makes splash move

"Thad Matta is an exceptional choice to lead our men's basketball program," Butler president James Danko said. "In Thad, Butler is getting a first-class person who has put together one of the strongest résumés in all of college basketball over the past few decades. He is a Bulldog who embodies the excellence and character that we hope all of our graduates aspire to achieve in their respective industries and daily life. Our basketball program is in great hands under Thad's leadership."

Entire article: https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...eturns-as-bulldogs-program-makes-splash-move/

Great hire for Butler.
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It's either a great hire, or a bad one. There's no in-between. Does he really have his health and energy back? Or does he just want to stay in the game and get paid? We shall see. It is certainly easier to maintain success at Butler compared with OSU.
 
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DZ83CK said:
It's either a great hire, or a bad one. There's no in-between. Does he really have his health and energy back? Or does he just want to stay in the game and get paid? We shall see. It is certainly easier to maintain success at Butler compared with OSU.
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All good points/questions. However, maintaining success at any school these days is extremely difficult. If his he's not 100% healthy, I do think the key to his success will be to hire good assistant coaches that can do some of the things he may not be able to do at times, etc. College coaching is really a dog eat dog back stabbing high pressure profession. He did have some coaching interviews after he was fired by Ohio State; but, I think they were basically sham interviews. Ohio State was paying him the final 3 years on his contract; however, the fine print required him actively to seek other coaching positions (i.e. any new coaching salary would offset what Ohio State was paying him.) I do think that maybe Butler might have been the only coaching job he would accept. There is an old saying that: "you can't go home again". Well, I think that Thad Matta just did or at least is trying to.
 
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I hope he does well, and yes the Butler job could go sideways for him now if he's unable to muster the same energy and effort he used to. The part where Butler is easier than OSU is the conference and expectations based on history. The Big East is a bit of a step down from the B1G - there's just not the same level of quality depth of teams at the top in the conference, as lately only Nova has been consistently at a paticularly high level. I think Thad winning 20 games every year is good enough for him to keep his job at Butler. It is quite possible that he could quit if he finds himself unable to do the job physically.


ScriptOhio said:
All good points/questions. However, maintaining success at any school these days is extremely difficult. If his he's not 100% healthy, I do think the key to his success will be to hire good assistant coaches that can do some of the things he may not be able to do at times, etc. College coaching is really a dog eat dog back stabbing high pressure profession. He did have some coaching interviews after he was fired by Ohio State; but, I think they were basically sham interviews. Ohio State was paying him the final 3 years on his contract; however, the fine print required him actively to seek other coaching positions (i.e. any new coaching salary would offset what Ohio State was paying him.) I do think that maybe Butler might have been the only coaching job he would accept. There is an old saying that: "you can't go home again". Well, I think that Thad Matta just did or at least is trying to.
Click to expand...
 
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"I was," Matta said on the College Hoops Today podcast with Jon Rothstein when asked if he was close to taking other jobs before his return to Butler. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was very close. It's funny — I got to see a lot of different situations. A lot of different opportunities presented themselves. But in the end, it was weird — something never felt right, just in terms of, as a coach, you go to a campus, you look around and people have always said, 'How do you know you can be successful there?' And it's almost like a gut feel, if you will. And when this situation here at Butler University came up, it happened really quick and it just felt like this was the one for me. And I think that's the thing that a lot of guys nowadays, they take jobs for money or they take jobs for fame and whatever, and I didn't do that. I'm just here because it feels right and this place is, obviously, very, very special for me."

Matta, 54, lives in Indianapolis. Working at Butler makes that super convenient.

"That was huge," Matta said of living in Indianapolis already. "... I literally live three minutes from Hinkle and that was probably a big factor, that it wasn't going to be a life-changing move. I'm out of that stage now when you make the move and you've got to buy a house and a certain neighborhood so your kids can go to a certain school district and all that stuff. I'm past that. So just from the standpoint of it was a little bit of a seamless transition — all I had to do was come in and go to work."
 
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