After 13 seasons, Thad Matta will no longer be coaching the Ohio State University men’s basketball team. Matta and OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith announced the decision at a joint press conference today.
It’s not clear whether the decision is a firing, or a retirement, or more likely a little bit of both. Coach Matta has had some significant health issues, and those health issues may have affected his coaching. After having an enormous amount of success for most of his Ohio State career, the Buckeyes had fallen on hard times lately, and this past season was his worst one yet. Recruiting, which once was Matta’s forte, also has been a struggle of late, and it may be another aspect of the coaching job that may have been affected by Matta’s physical condition.
Many Ohio State fans have been calling for Matta’s head. I wasn’t one of them. I think he was a total class act who turned around the Buckeye basketball program and brought in some great players; by virtue of the great results he achieved for most of his Ohio State career, I thought he deserved a chance to rebuild the program if he was so inclined. In my view, Matta’s farewell remarks at the press conference today, shown below, demonstrate exactly why he was such a good coach at OSU, and why he remains a terrific human being.
Some times you need to be careful what you wish for. I hope the Ohio State fans who urged that Matta be discharged because they thought it will be easy to get another top coach to come to Columbus don’t end up ruing the day that they got their wish. In the meantime, I wish Coach Matta good health and good fortune, for a good guy.
This year’s Buckeyes squad has had a scrappy journey so far. The Buckeyes have three key seniors — Sam Thompson, Shannon Scott, and Amir Williams — and many fans have been disappointed in their play. Williams, in particular, has been hard to figure out; he’s got the size, but seems to lack the competitive fire that has characterized some of Coach Matta’s other products, like David Lighty and Aaron Craft. It is noteworthy, perhaps, that today’s win came in a game where Williams did not play at all.
Now they are gone, and there are some new faces. We’ll still have Slammin’ Sam Thompson at forward and steady Shannon Scott at the point, and Amir Williams and Trey McDonald will patrol the paint, but the identity of last year’s team was mostly set by Craft and Smith. Now the Buckeyes will have to find a new identity — and given last year’s shooting woes, that might not be a bad thing.
That’s not going to be easy, because Dayton is a very good team, as well as being a great basketball school with a rich heritage. The Flyers play in the tough Atlantic 10, where they finished 10-6 and lost a very close game in the A-10 Tournament. UD has size and scoring. In fact, their leading scorer is Jordan Sibert, a former Ohio State Buckeye who came in as a heralded recruit and left when he wasn’t getting a lot of playing time. He’ll be looking to prove something in this game — and that’s the first intriguing storyline. The second is Dayton coach Archie Miller, who was on Thad Matta’s staff at Ohio State. He’ll also be hoping to make a statement.
The Buckeyes have been a cipher for months, and today was no different. For stretches they look putrid, then then look pretty good. They can’t make a three-pointer, and their free throw shooting is abysmal. Today they were 1-14 from behind the arc — that’s a nifty 7.1% for the mathematicians out there — and a limp 64% from the free throw line. Once again, they missed free throws that could have put the game away. They also turned the ball over 12 times, and a lot of those turnovers were simple mental mistakes. It’s got to be maddening for Coach Thad Matta when March rolls around and those mistakes keep being made.
We’re to the point in the season where every team still playing is very good, and very scary. The Buckeyes’ first opponent, Arizona, certainly fits that bill. For years, Arizona has been one of the premier programs in college basketball. This year the Wildcats, seeded sixth in the West, are 27-7 and crushed their first two opponents in the NCAA Tournament. They are led by three players averaging more than 10 points a game — guards Mark Lyons and Nick Johnson and forward Solomon Hill — and have lots of size on the inside. Equally important during high-drama tournament games, Arizona has a number of seniors on its roster who can be expected to provide steady leadership during the high-stress moments. Arizona’s talented and deep roster appears to present a number of match-up problems for Ohio State. To top things off, the Wildcats’ coach, Sean Miller, is a Thad Matta protege who knows Ohio State’s coach well, and Arizona will have a home court advantage of sorts by playing in neighboring California. All told, I think Arizona will pose an enormous challenge for the Buckeyes.
The Buckeyes ground out a hard-fought win over the Michigan State Spartans today, 61-58. The two teams like to battle and play body-up defense, and they showed those qualities today. Aaron Craft played brilliantly for the Buckeyes, and fortunately survived being hurled to the ground by the neck by the Spartans’ Derrick Nix, on a play that provoked a fusillade of obscenity and brought me out of my chair. But the Buckeyes hung tough, played through adversity, and when they needed a final bucket to put the game on ice, Deshaun Thomas stepped up and rattled down a jumper.
Coach Matta had to replace Jared Sullinger, a dominant center who led the Buckeyes to two Big Ten titles and, last year, a Final Four. Sullinger left early for the NBA — but Coach Matta is used to that. He recruits top-notch talent, and he’s lost many players who turned pro after a year or two at Ohio State. When that happens, he cheerfully accepts the challenge of reshaping his team, and each year he rises to that challenge. This year’s team has compiled a 22-7 record and is contending for another Big Ten title.
During most of Thad Matta’s highly successful tenure as the Ohio State coach, the Buckeyes have been at the top of the Big Ten. They’ve dominated the Wolverines and knocked them out of the Big Ten Tournament three years in a row. This year, though, the tables are turned. Michigan is unbeaten and, with Duke’s loss yesterday, will be ranked number 1 in the land if they can beat the Buckeyes today. Ohio State, on the other hand, has seen its offensive struggles continue and isn’t the overwhelming force of the past few years. The Buckeyes got crushed on the road at Illinois and will have to play their best game of the year to beat the Wolverines.
The Buckeyes played excellent on-the-ball defense and rebounded the ball well to dominate the first half — even though they played most of the half with Deshaun Thomas, their top scorer, riding the bench with two fouls. The Buckeyes were sharp and attacking and had Duke on its heels. In the second half, however, Duke played much more aggressively at both ends of the court, and it paid off. Duke hit big shots, Ohio State didn’t, and when Duke pulled ahead it made the free throws that salted the game away.
Cameron is tough because the crowd is loud and proud, but mostly it’s tough because Duke always has great teams under Coach Mike Krzyzewski. This year is no exception. The Blue Devils are ranked second and they’ve already beaten two of the most highly regarded teams in the nation, Kentucky and Louisville. After six games, the Blue Devils have five players averaging in double figures. They are led by 6-10 center Mason Plumlee, who is netting almost 20 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks per game, and senior guard Seth Curry. The Blue Devils have a lot of talent and play the tough, disciplined game you expect from a Coach K team.
Duke clearly has the edge in tomorrow night’s contest, but the game should be an intriguing one. Plumlee gives Duke a strong inside game that the Buckeyes lack; OSU big men Evan Ravenel and Amir Williams will have to play exceptionally well to keep the Buckeyes competitive. OSU defensive whiz Aaron Craft will take on one of the Duke guards, but can the Buckeyes guard the rest of the Blue Devil squad? At the other end of the court, Duke will have to figure out how to defend the Buckeyes’ top scorer, Deshaun Thomas, who can take the ball inside or pop from outside. Ohio State fans also are looking for Lenzelle Smith, Jr., one of the heroes of the Buckeyes’ run to the Final Four last year, to assert himself at the offensive end.
The team begins with three stalwart players who really emerged last year: scoring and rebounding machine Deshaun Thomas, point guard and defensive stopper Aaron Craft, and do-everything guard Lenzelle Smith, Jr. All three played significant minutes and made big contributions to last year’s success. To replace Sullinger in the middle, the Buckeyes will look to 6-11 sophomore Amir Williams, a shot blocker who showed promise is limited action last year, and senior Evan Ravenel, who backed up Sullinger. The other spot might be occupied by point guard Shannon Scott, who will need to improve his shooting this year, jump-out-of-the-gym alley-ooper Sam Thompson, or silky smooth shooter LaQuinton Ross. Add in freshman Amedeo Della Valle, from Alba, Italy, and you give coach Thad Matta lots of pieces to work with.
Obviously, I’m more excited about Deshaun Thomas’ decision to return to Ohio State for his junior year. This past season he went from a one-dimensional, shot-launching part-time player to a crucial part of the team that made it all the way to the Final Four. He brought so much to the table — a scorer’s mentality and creative shot-making, an inside-outside offensive game, tremendous rebounding abilities, and significantly improved defense and interior passing — and was just a lot of fun to watch. If his improvement from his sophomore to junior year is comparable his development this year, Thomas could compete for leading scorer and rebounder honors in the Big Ten next year.
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