• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

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

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
I am giving Matta a pass..he recruited Mc Donlalds AA with a high ceiling but I doubt Wooden himself could get Williams out of the basement and Scott and Thompson pass the first floor. Matta may need to recruit players rather than atletes..Sullinger and Russell were players not the biggest jumpers or speedy. Give me A Kaminsky Burke or Hayes...
 
Upvote 0
DZ83CK said:
Well Matta has had 5 S16s in 10 years, so basically half the time his teams have been much better than the average year and the other half have been basically average good teams although his first two were heavily influenced by O'Brien's recruiting.
Click to expand...

Justify it however you want, no one has won like Matta has at Ohio State in 50 years and likely no one will once he leaves.
 
Upvote 0
DZ83CK said:
Not exactly. O'Brien had them in 4 straight tourneys, between a 3 and 5 seed every year I believe. And he was a mediocre recruiter, which showed up in tournament results most of the time. I believe many coaches could get OSU to be a tourney team regularly, it is having a team that can go deep in the tournament that is hard to build at OSU for most coaches.
Click to expand...
And O'Brien also was involved in things which put tOSU on probation. Personally, I'll take Matta's record and no major violations over a National Championship and probation later. No, I did not say it doesn't matter if we win a National Championship. What I said was if I have to choose between Matta and no probation vs. O'Brien (or anyone else you consider a better coach) and we end up on probation I'll take Matta all day every day
 
Upvote 0
I don't understand the thought that Thad Matta has "lost it" or that Ohio State could expect to bring someone in that could produce consistent, elite-program type results at Ohio State. It has not happened at Ohio State since the 1960's, when there were 2-3 wins necessary to reach the Final Four.

Kentucky has been amazing under John Calipari. Their talent is unmatched. The closest thing, talent-wise, is Duke. Each has had very disappointing results in the past 5 years. Kentucky missed the tournament and lost a 1st Round home game in the NIT to Robert Morris. Last year they were a disappointment until finally putting it together in the tournament. Duke has lost to double-digit seeded low major teams twice in the past three years (Lehigh, Mercer). Elite programs have struggles - it happens.

Thad Matta's worst teams in the past 5 years are still NCAA tournament teams. He led OSU to 4 straight Sweet 16 appearances prior to last year, including a Final Four and an Elite Eight finish. The teams the past two years have "struggled" and yet they still will have won a combined 21 B1G conference games in what has been a very tough league. That's not great, but it is also nothing to sneeze at considering the deficiencies in this senior class.

All I will say is this - the last time OSU went through a rough patch was 2007-2009, coming off the Thad 5 era. They missed the NCAA tournament (winning the NIT) and lost an 8-9 game against Siena. What happened next? The stretch of 4 consecutive Sweet 16 or better finishes. Thad has a group of seniors that he missed on - guys who just never progressed into anything more than role players even though they came in with high expectations. It is difficult in CBB nowadays to overcome an underachieving class when it is so large, and all those players stay all 4 years. Much was expected of Scott, Ross, Sam, and Amir, yet they just didn't have the "it" factor.

I have a feeling this team will look and play much differently beginning next season when this class's time has elapsed and new blood enters the program.
 
Upvote 0
buckeyeintn said:
And O'Brien also was involved in things which put tOSU on probation. Personally, I'll take Matta's record and no major violations over a National Championship and probation later. No, I did not say it doesn't matter if we win a National Championship. What I said was if I have to choose between Matta and no probation vs. O'Brien (or anyone else you consider a better coach) and we end up on probation I'll take Matta all day every day
Click to expand...
Certainly I am not an advocate of coaches who get sanctioned, my point is that OB had some success on a consistent basis at OSU. I don't believe the violations had anything to do with the quality of teams they had those years.
 
Upvote 0
Bulls-Eye said:
I don't understand the thought that Thad Matta has "lost it" or that Ohio State could expect to bring someone in that could produce consistent, elite-program type results at Ohio State. It has not happened at Ohio State since the 1960's, when there were 2-3 wins necessary to reach the Final Four.

Kentucky has been amazing under John Calipari. Their talent is unmatched. The closest thing, talent-wise, is Duke. Each has had very disappointing results in the past 5 years. Kentucky missed the tournament and lost a 1st Round home game in the NIT to Robert Morris. Last year they were a disappointment until finally putting it together in the tournament. Duke has lost to double-digit seeded low major teams twice in the past three years (Lehigh, Mercer). Elite programs have struggles - it happens.

Thad Matta's worst teams in the past 5 years are still NCAA tournament teams. He led OSU to 4 straight Sweet 16 appearances prior to last year, including a Final Four and an Elite Eight finish. The teams the past two years have "struggled" and yet they still will have won a combined 21 B1G conference games in what has been a very tough league. That's not great, but it is also nothing to sneeze at considering the deficiencies in this senior class.

All I will say is this - the last time OSU went through a rough patch was 2007-2009, coming off the Thad 5 era. They missed the NCAA tournament (winning the NIT) and lost an 8-9 game against Siena. What happened next? The stretch of 4 consecutive Sweet 16 or better finishes. Thad has a group of seniors that he missed on - guys who just never progressed into anything more than role players even though they came in with high expectations. It is difficult in CBB nowadays to overcome an underachieving class when it is so large, and all those players stay all 4 years. Much was expected of Scott, Ross, Sam, and Amir, yet they just didn't have the "it" factor.

I have a feeling this team will look and play much differently beginning next season when this class's time has elapsed and new blood enters the program.
Click to expand...
Do you think the team will be better next year? I don't see how without Russell.
 
Upvote 0
OhioState001 said:
Do you think the team will be better next year? I don't see how without Russell.
Click to expand...

I do. To me, it is addition by subtraction when you look at this senior class. I don't mean to say any of the seniors are "bad" guys, have character issues, cause problems within the team, etc. I mean, on the court, this team may be better off moving on. When you have a 5-6 man class of seniors, you likely have built much of your team around the thought that those guys will be solid contributors, if not go-to guys on the court as juniors and seniors. That, unfortunately has not happened with any of these guys. They are role players who have been thrust into more important roles than what I think they are prepared for.

I think in today's CBB, it is more difficult to overcome underachieving players who stay in your program all four years than it is to replace a one-and-done player. Thad Matta has been absolutely hamstrung by this group because it is difficult to recruit over top of juniors and seniors.

Next year, you'll have an entirely different team, really. If Marc Loving turns things around (BTW, what in the world has happened to him and his attitude since the suspension - his effort has been almost non-existent) and Kam Williams can build off a good start to this season, you have two good returning shooters. Add in KBD, who may be the best of the bunch as a versatile shooter/scorer, and Tate, who should improve his jumper and become much tougher to guard, and you have 4 strong returners. Plus, you have a new frontcourt, with size and hopefully energy, and some other really good, versatile players in the freshmen class.

I think next year's team can be built more to Thad's liking. The key will be shooting - as a whole the team needs to be much, much better shooting the basketball. Right now the team's shooting percentage is good, but that is skewed because of DAR and how well the team shot the ball in the non-conference schedule.
 
Upvote 0
Jumpin blue baby jesus, people wanting Thad fired.........are you fucking kidding me?

upload_2015-3-10_21-34-39.png



aYaxw40.gif
 
Upvote 0
Matta will one day hang them up. I'm a little worried his health will make that day come sooner than it may have otherwise. Let's enjoy what we have now. As frustrating as this team has been this year, they still won 20+ games, can make some noise in the BTT and are a lock for the NCAAs. There are about 300 other NCAA D-1 teams that can't say the same.

Matta is going to retire one day and walk right into the college basketball HOF.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top