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

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I think it will be tough to get one early since he will be starting anew as a Buckeye.

I would like to see us get in on Derrick Brown out of Dayton. Xavier was in his top three with MSU and NC St.

Abdul Herera from Miami is another interseting candidate. He lists schools all over the place and apparently Georgetown leads, but both OSU and Xavier have been in the mix.

Nor do I rule out Raymond.
 
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I wonder if if his hiring won't pick up Ben McCauley's interest. It sounds like Raymond is still sold on Xavier from what I've read. I'm not too bullish on our chances with D. Brown. I think Matta may have to wait a bit to get his first recruit just due to the awkward timing of all this but I'm sure by next summer he'll be a force in recruiting. My guess right now would be that he snags an under the radar guy 3 star guy.
 
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Thinking this over I am going to change my response to be much more positive.

This is a guy who recruited four 4 star players to play in the Atlantic 10 in three years. He was out there selling Xavier - the second best school in Cincinnati - as the place these kids wanted to go and play a little up-tempo basketball in the 10,000 seat Cintas Center. Hell, there are kids on the Bucks that don't even know how to pronounce Xavier.

Look at the platform he has now. Same style of ball plus a beautiful arena and facilities and a chance to play Indiana, Illinois, and MSU rather than Dayton, Temple and St. Joe in a conference that typically sends 5 or 6 schools to the dance.

This guy has dropped the gauntlet and said OSU is going to compete for the NC. That is the enthusiastic message going over the phone lines to recuits all over the nation right now. I look for some big name kids we aren't even thinking of to start listing OSU as a candidate - kids he may already have a relationship with but who laughed at the idea of playing in the Atlantic 10. Kids who buy into the idea that they can be the one to help him get those three points he needed against Duke.

Matta plays the style of ball kids want to play. Richard Hendrix, Julian Wright and Eric Devendorf are all looking at teams in the Big Ten. Why not OSU? Sure, we may be looking at sanctions. But that didn't bother Tommy Amaker.

But then I am always the optimist.

Whatever happened to that Hairston kid?
 
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Malik went to Oregon. Having had Dayton season tickets Matta's teams don't really run much and play more a half court style Big 10 Offense. When Dayton played Xavier the first time this season in early January, they were realing with barley a .500 record. This was a team that was in jeopardy of not making the NIT let alone NCAAs. Watching X play Dayton in the A10 finals it was a totally diffrent X team out there. Somehow Matta got the fire in the X players bellys and they lit up the conference and NCAA's save for some trouble with Duquense. We're all gonna have to be patient with Matta this year for recruiting. He's gotten a late jump compared to every school and already around 40 of the 2005 top 100 have commited. Many more players have already narrowed down the choices. Matta has good eye for talent and with time I think he'll shine at OSU look no one since Fred Taylor.
 
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I'm not sure the potential of sanctions bother the kids as much anymore. If Amaker's abilities to recruit with no experience under that cloud are any evidence, I would expect Matta to do well. I truly believe that these kids look for opportunity to play as soon as possible, so they can showcase their talents to get to the pros.
 
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Matta has plenty of experience in Ohio, so I think he can get some hidden gems year after year. Recruiting Ohio is important, something OB never did as well as I would have liked.
 
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I think the shadow of the NCAA coming down on OSU will have a negative affect on recruiting till it is known what will happen. Nobody seems to agree with me but I think it is hard to sale recruits OSU when you can't give them a definitive answer. Allot of these kids crave the spotlight and the NCAA tourney is a big spotlight. If I'm worried about what the NCAA might do, with what I know, why wouldn't a recruit be? Any loss of schollies or tourney play sanctions wll definitely have a negative affect. JMHO
 
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Sean Miller was the main recruiter for Raymond and he just hired the assistant from Ohio State that got Butler to change his mind about going to UC. I can't remember the assistants name, but that's what was reported on Sports of All Sorts last night here in Cincinnati

Word back home (I'm orginally from Toledo) is that BJ is still 100% committed to Xavier. This information was passed along to me by the head varsity coach at St. Francis DeSales (Toledo) who was told by coach Heintschel.

On another note, can't wait to see Raymond go up against OJ mayo and Billy Walker this coming season.
 
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I'm sure Ohio State was still recruiting Butler or at least stayed in touch with him. All I'm saying is that the best recruiter on the old Xavier staff was Sean Miller, who landed Raymond (and Duncan) for Xavier. Last night on Sports of All Sorts, Mike DeCourcy (The Sporting News) reported that Miller had hired the OSU assistant that was the main recruiter for both Terwilliger and Butler. Last I heard Matta was looking to bring two other assitants off his staff at Xavier, but they weren't the best recruiters on his staff.
 
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Thad Matta (Official Thread)

Per the Cbus Dispatch Thad Matta has hired Dan Peters as an assistant coach.

Dan Peters was the #1 Assistant at Cincinnati under Huggins for the past 5 years. He was the guy acting as interim while Huggins was on suspension.

IMO this is a huge statement! To move from one school to another in the same position implies the coach thinks the new school is a better place to be - even if that school is under threat of sanctions. There has just been a change in the pecking order in Ohio schools.

Coach Matta has just gotten his first recruit.
 
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Nice news Oh8ch. I'm thinking Peters was also seeing the writing on the wall at Cincinnati. Huggins is golden no matter what he does to embarrass the university. Dan will never get a fair shot at that job and now it's very unlikely that Huggins will leave anytime soon.
 
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This isn't the first #1 assistant that Huggins has lose. Mick Cronin left Cincinnati a few years ago to take the same position at Louisville under Pitino. That's a lateral move in the same conference. Cronin is now the head coach down at Murray State. I think these guys are realizing that Huggins isn't going to be leaving Cincy anytime soon and they have a better chance at getting a head coaching job under someone else's wing.

Interesting that Peters was his first hire in that he was try to get two of his assistants from Xavier to come with him.
 
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