Coach Matta Press Conference and Player Quotes
As supplied by the OSU Athletic Department via ohiostatebuckeyes.com
STEVE SNAPP: Good afternoon, everyone. Delighted to have you here this afternoon. This is a very exciting day. We are very pleased to be able to introduce our new basketball coach to you. Before we hear from Coach Matta, however, we will have some introductory remarks from Director of Athletics Andy Geiger and Dr. Karen Holbrook, the president of the Ohio State University.
After Coach Matta's prepared remarks, we will take questions from the floor. We would appreciate it if you would identify yourself both with your name and your affiliation so he can put a name with the face. After the question and answer period, we will have time for some one-on-ones. We need to be out of here by 4:30. Coach Matta has some commitments we need to get to. We'll have time for one-on-ones both with Coach Matta and Mr. Geiger as well as players on the current team who are here today. NCAA rules do not permit you to interview the in-coming freshmen who are here. While they can be here at the press conference, they cannot be interviewed, but the other members of the team are available for interviews.
Anyone who has a special request or an interview a little later with Coach Matta, please see Dan Wallenberg, and he will arrange that for you and we'll try to get that done a little bit later. Also, we'll have a complete transcript of the formal part of this press conference available on our web site at ohiostatebuckeyes.com at about 6:00. With that, it's my pleasure to turn it over to Ohio State Director of Athletics, Andy Geiger.
ANDY GEIGER: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you all for being here. I would like to start off with just a few thank yous, if you will. First of all, the last couple of days have been really pretty hectic for the people that operate this building, that run this building. They've had two shows in the last two days including one setting up right now, and their effort to accommodate us with this process has been something that I really appreciate, so to the Jerome Schottenstein staff, a heartfelt thanks.
I would also very much like to thank the committee. I will say that the team is not here right now because they were scheduled to lift this afternoon, and the coach thought that was a higher priority. So they're working, but towards the end of that they can be available for questions.
Our committee worked very hard, first of all. I'd like to express my appreciation to Michelle Willis and John Bruno who traveled around the country with me for a few days talking to folks. Other members of the committee, Michelle is our senior women's administrator and associate director of athletics. John Bruno is professor of psychology and is our faculty athletics representative. Clark Kellogg cannot be here today, but he was a tremendous help to us through the interview process and the preparation process. He's with his son at the national AAU tournament in Clarksville, Tennessee. Rick Smith, former basketball captain, thank you for your service. Bill Hosket, Ohio State basketball captain, former All-American and analyst on television, was just an enormous tower of strength. Dr. Joe Barr, professor of optometry, chair of the athletic council. Tom Hof, associate of athletics for marketing, and Terence Dials, I think is here, is he not? So Terence will be here for questions after the formal part of the press conference.
Also meeting with the candidates when they came to campus was chairman of our board of trustees Tammy Longaberger. Tammy, thank you so much for taking your valuable time for helping us with this process. Also a tremendous help and support to me throughout this has been our president, Karen Holbrook. She has been a partner in this and let me remind folks that it says very clearly in the NCAA handbook that the individual responsible for the conduct of intercollegiate athletics on every campus is the president of the university. She does so in a collegial, supportive, consultant-type way that I find absolutely invaluable and I treasure her in working with us the way she has supported us through this process. To say a few words is the president of the Ohio State University, Dr. Karen Holbrook, Karen?
PRESIDENT HOLBROOK: Thank you, Andy, very much. And thank you for making this wonderful announcement at a perfectly appropriate time as today was our board of trustees meeting and we are pleased to tell you -- I'll probably be the first one to tell you -- that it was passed. You are a member. You are a new Buckeye and we're delighted that you are here. It was brought up at the trustees meeting today. And I'm delighted -- along the side are many of the trustees who are with us. They, too, are interested in what's going on in athletics and academics and everything in this university.
This has been a tremendous process and Andy and I will thank the university and you for the tireless hours you have taken bringing in first-rate candidates that Chairman Longaberger and John Bruno and Andy and I had an opportunity to meet with one on one. I have to tell you we were extraordinarily impressed when we met Coach Matta. We liked what he said. The liked the way he said it. We liked the record that he had. We liked the fact that he's a winning coach. But he's a winning coach in not only in terms of what the team does, but how the students working with him succeed. Looking at the grade point average of the students coming in, and the students on the team, it is escalated very much. He fits in with the coaches at the Ohio State University and I have a challenge for you, of course. We haven't had a (national championship) team for the last 44 years and I know that that's longer than you've been on this earth, but we expect that we're going to be working toward that as a goal and we know that you're going to lead the basketball team and lead the young men who play men's basketball with us to great successes in the classroom, on the court, and throughout the university.
So thank you for becoming Buckeyes. Welcome to you. Welcome to Barbara. Welcome to Ali and Emily. We're delighted to have you as Buckeyes. And one closing comment I had asked Coach Matta when I interviewed him, how long did he think he might stay here and he said he'd like to raise his family as Buckeyes, so we're planning on having you here for a very long time and welcome you most sincerely. Thank you very much.
ANDY GEIGER: Thank you, Karen. I would also like to express my appreciation to members of Jim O'Brien's staff, Dave Eggelhoff, who's the video coordinator, Monte Mathis and LeMonte Stone, Randy Shrout, director of basketball operations for their very tireless work and their continuous efforts on behalf of our program during the interim period. I also want to salute interim head coach Rick Boyages, who is a remarkable human being and somebody we plan on having at Ohio State for a very long time in an administrative capacity that I'm working with him on. He is a wonderful resource for our athletic program and for this university, a rather unique individual and I treasure his intellect. I treasure his instincts and I look forward to having him with us for at least the foreseeable future.
Our search was deliberate. You all have been extremely patient through all this. Some of you can smile a little bit if you want to. We have taken our time on purpose. This program has taken something of a jolt. It has been a little bit difficult, to say the least, in the past several days and months. So we were not, for a variety of reasons, rushing through this, as you all pointed out to us daily.
We, however, had our eye on the ball and focused through, I think, all of this in getting the very, very best that we could get and we made absolutely sure about everything. We did exhaustive background checks. We did all of the due diligence that the Ohio State University should do, particularly in the circumstance in all candor in which we find ourselves. Coach Matta today met with the team, several of the team are here. Apparently the lifting is going on a little bit later, so you can chat with them a little bit later on.
Thad Matta is the son of a coach and athletic director. His wife Barbara is the daughter of a coach and athletic director. They both have grown up in coaching/athletic director families. Sports has been in their culture all of their lives.
As the search committee, we started on our first day looking for the right characteristics for the ideal coach. We worked on building a strong man, if you will. Just exactly what is a coach? And we wanted first and foremost a teacher and educator and Dr. Holbrook covered Thad's record in that area, and we're very impressed with that. We are overwhelmed with his sense of energy, his sense of focus. We wanted somebody who has enormous respect and love for the game. The game is a way of life, the game of basketball, for the right coach and we certainly have somebody with those characteristics. Integrity and compliance, obeying the rules, all of those kinds of things, very, very important aspects. Intelligence and competence and somebody who is an incredible competitor.
We have that person in.Thad Matta. His wife Barbara is over here. Barbara can give a wave. We have Ali and Emily. We have Barbara's sister, Katie and Deborah, and Mr. and Mrs. Matta are here and Mr. and Mrs. Britton, Barbara's parents are here. So we're delighted to have the entire family who drove in from various places in the midwest to be with us today. Ladies and gentlemen, the head basketball coach for men at the Ohio State University,.Thad Matta.
COACH MATTA: Thank you, Andy. I think, first of all, I'd like to thank Andy Geiger, Dr. Holbrook, the committee, for this opportunity. You know, there's times in your life when you know something's right and to be a part of the Ohio State University, this is the greatest day of my life. And in the year 2000, we were moving from Butler University and I had been a head coach there at my alma mater, and as we were packing stuff up, one of my neighbors, a man named Mert Prophet, a man who had been in athletics for 60 years of his life, showed up at my door, and he said,.Thad, I hate to see you leave, but I'm proud of you and I know you're going to do well. He said, I want to give you a going away present. And he reached into his pocket and put it in my hand and he closed it, and as I opened it, I looked, and I said, Mert, I'm not going to Ohio State. And he says, you need to hang on to that, one of these days, it's going to work for you. And remember his last name was Prophet.
As this decision went on, there were a lot of tough things that I had to go through personally, but always keeping in mind what was important in trying to reach my goals, and I think that one thing I'd like to cover in regards to leaving Xavier University, I deeply regret the perception of what transpired. And my intentions were never to demean Xavier University or the program. Dawn Rogers, the athletic director there, is one of my dearest friends and she's a great athletic director, and her and I have made a commitment to each other that we would work on this hand-in-hand, her and I. Through the process, she knew everything that was relayed to me, to her. And I take great pride in the three years that I was there and what our kids were able to accomplish.
But I think with that said, I'm closing the door on that and I'm opening the door at the Ohio State University. And I believe this: This is the greatest job in the world for Thad Matta. I'm fully aware of the state that this program's in right now. And I stand before you today to let you know I've accepted this position for one reason and one reason only, and that is to bring Ohio State basketball back into national province.
I do realize that we've got challenges, but I'm here to roll up the sleeves, go to work, and bring this thing back. I really believe in what this university stands for, what the administration all the way down stands for, for what our fans, alumni, the guys that have worn the scarlet and gray or have set the tradition for us to build this program back to where it belongs is what I'm here for.
Once again, I say that there are the challenges, there's going to be the obstacles. As I told the players today, the Ohio state way is now in effect. And that is a phrase that we use with our players and that is what this program will be built on, the Ohio State way.
We've got a long, long road ahead of us, but as I told them, it starts right now. As far as where we are today, I think that, you know, it is a crazy time for those of you who know a lot about college basketball. We started our recruiting period yesterday. John Groce and I actually started the morning at 6:00 a.m. on a flight from New Jersey today to get back to Columbus, out recruiting yesterday. We've got a long way to go. The number one thing that I have to do right now is find my way around this building as well as get to know our players because they are the most important people in the program. And as Steve alluded to, after this, I'm going to sit down and meet with each guy and get the ball rolling in the right direction as far as our relationships go, because as I told them, this program is going to be built on trust. It's going to be built on hard work. It's going to be built on dedication and commitment and those conditions will always be unconditional. And right now unconditional is a key word, regardless of the circumstances, we will be unconditional in every phase of our basketball program.
As we talk, I know I'll get questions about this style of play, you know, I'm bringing to Ohio State, a fun, exciting style of basketball. I want to play fast, as I told the players, but we will play smart. I'm not a guy that says, boy, listen to this crowd, they love how fast we're running, I'm more concerned about the shots we're getting or the turnovers we may be committing. We will be the hardest working, toughest team you've ever seen. We will defend, we will play smart, and we will play hard. And most importantly, as I told them, we will play together as a team.
Now, I have to tell a quick story about how I came to my decision to take this job. After I flew home Wednesday afternoon, I forgot my cell phone in my house, so I was driving 58 miles an hour in a 40-mile-an-hour zone and a police officer wanted to stop me and let me know that. So she got up to the side of the car, she said, sir, you seem to be in a hurry. And I said, yes, ma'am, I am. And she said, is there a problem. I said, well, there is. I said, right now I'm kind of torn. I'm thinking about taking a new job day. She said, what are you doing? I said, I'm a basketball coach. She said, oh, really, where are you at. I said, Xavier University. She said, really, I went to Ohio State. I said, I just took the job. And she goes, have a great day. So, with that, I'd like to open this up for questions and whatever you have.
STEVE SNAPP: Remember, please identify yourself for the record.
REPORTER: On June 29th, one day after Andy Geiger said he met you at the airport, in an interview you denied being a candidate for the job and denied being contacted by Ohio State, at what point did you think you were a candidate for this job and what changed between June 29th and the point at which you accepted the job?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think it's a lot like today, I flew in from Newark, and I hadn't shaved, I hadn't eaten, and I got into my house and my family was there and it was pretty hectic in there. So I went up, I jumped in the shower, I walked into my closet, and I grabbed my suit I knew I wanted to wear, it was my lucky suit. And all of a sudden I looked and I had a lot of ties there, and I grabbed one tie and I said, well, I want to wear this one. Then I changed my mind. I said, no, I'm going to wear this one. Then I saw another one over here, I grabbed it. I said, I'm going to wear this one.
I don't know the exact days, but when you go through this process, there's a lot of times where you change your mind. You don't know for sure what you're going to do. You don't know if you're going to be offered the job. As I said, I did not want to ever demean the program that we built there. Next question.
REPORTER: You said you're fully aware of the state this program is in. I wonder if you could give us your perception of what state this program is in.
COACH MATTA: Well, I think honestly it's something that Mr. Geiger and I have spoken about, and one thing that is very positive to me is how quickly they acted to comply with the NCAA. I don't think that, number one, I can answer or anybody at Ohio State can answer exactly where it is. I just know that there are -- there's some things being investigated and when I say that I'm aware that that's going on.
REPORTER: Were you given any insight or did you have great concern during your interview process to maybe try to get a handle on that situation? I assume that was of great concern to you.
COACH MATTA: It was. But as I step back, and Andy was unable to give me anything definite because he doesn't know for sure, as nobody does, and I felt that in dealing with this, I'll take whatever's given to us and go. I thought the job was better. I thought it was a great job and I wanted to be a part of it.
REPORTER: One thing that makes fans a little bit nervous is this is your third job in five years. Is there anything you can say to people to assure them that this is indeed a career job for you?
COACH MATTA: Yeah, I think that, you know, for me personally, I'm a very goal-oriented person. I remember back in the days my dad and I, family sitting there watching Big Ten basketball, and I grew up in what I would consider the heart, a small little town right on the Indiana border, of Big Ten basketball. And I'm going into, I think this will be my sixth or seventh year living in the State of Ohio and I'd always viewed Ohio State as a job that could be the greatest job for Thad Matta. And as I look at this, I think this is the pinnacle for me. I don't think there's a better place that I could coach basketball in other than Ohio State University.
REPORTER: Elaborate on that, if you will. You've said that a couple times. You said this is the greatest job for Thad Matta, explain that if you could.
COACH MATTA: Well, I think that every move that I've ever made, I've felt better about it. I felt that it was a better opportunity for me to achieve things. There's no quick way to get to the top. You know, as an assistant coach, I did the same thing. I had to climb the ladder until I felt like I was at the top. And today I stand here and feel like I've reached the top.
REPORTER: One year at Butler and three at Xavier, would you say your quick moves are over, do you imagine a little longer stay?
COACH MATTA: You can ask my wife. I sure as hell hope so.
REPORTER: Some people, including former Buckeye players, say we're the third or fourth best program in the state right now, where do you think it is, how do you get it back -- we're just talking about Ohio right now, obviously the sanctions as they come are part of that.
COACH MATTA: I think -- I don't know exactly where it is on the scale. I know where I want it to go. There have been some teams in the state that have had great success. There's great coaches in this state. There's great programs in this state. You know, honestly, the staff that I have here, the focus that I have is not to get Ohio State University, the best school in Ohio, let's get Ohio State to be the best school in the country.
REPORTER: Regardless of when you considered yourself a candidate or not a candidate, when did you find yourself interested in the job?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think when things went down on June 6th, people were very quickly -- acted very quickly to point to me that I should be interested in this job. I looked at this and said, I think Ohio State is a great job, but I felt like I had a great job at the time. I was in no hurry to make a quick decision. The one thing, I think how I operate is, I really don't get too concerned about things I can't control. I want to control -- I want to deal with the things that I can control. And that's exactly how I went about this. And as time marched on through the process, there were days that I felt like, I think this would be a great job for me. There were days I went into the Cintas Center, saw our players, and said, I don't think I can leave. There was days like Tuesday night, up until about 10:15, Mr. Geiger and I had a long conversation about whether or not I was coming Wednesday or not. As I left for here, I had a good feeling, but I wasn't sure where I was going to go. And at that point in the afternoon, it really felt right to me.
REPORTER: When did you know? What time did you feel right?
COACH MATTA: After I told the officer, it was right for me. No, I would say Mr. Geiger and I came to an agreement, I think 6:30 was the time that he basically said, welcome, welcome to the Ohio State family.
REPORTER: Coach, when was your first contact with Mr. Geiger?
COACH MATTA: Would have been -- it was a Thursday, 15 days ago maybe.
ANDY GEIGER: By telephone.
COACH MATTA: Yeah, by telephone.
REPORTER: How many times did you meet in person? When was the first?
COACH MATTA: We met in person twice. This is the third time today.
STEVE SNAPP: Let's go back in the back here.
REPORTER: Do you have any timetable for filling your other assistant spots?
COACH MATTA: No, I really don't. I think right now, kind of going through the process and getting a feel for Ohio State, getting a feel for our players, most importantly, I really don't have a timetable that I want it done by, by this certain date.
REPORTER: What's your position generally on playing under Ohio schools and specifically playing the University of Cincinnati in a nonleague game?
COACH MATTA: You know, I don't mind the fact of playing other Ohio schools. What I want to do is sit down and we try to look at our schedule and say, what's best for our basketball team. You know, the Cincinnati game, you know, I've just gone through three years of all-out combat and war from the Cross-Town Shootout. I think that we -- that would be a possibility. I think a lot of times coaches take heat for not playing a team when the other guy may not want to play either and I don't know what Coach Huggins' feelings would be on that. I guess it would be the I-71 Shootout.
REPORTER: He said repeatedly that he would play Ohio State if Ohio State would play him.
COACH MATTA: Is that right? I haven't talked to Coach in a couple months.
REPORTER: How much do you know about the talent, the guys that you have right now, the time that you've spent with them and how do you catch up on the kind of basketball team you're getting now?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think -- I get to see, I think, Ohio State and us had a couple common opponents this year and I saw them on tape one time and on television one time this year. A lot of these guys I've seen through the recruiting trails, I actually tried to recruit a couple of them and was unable to get them, but I think that the beauty for these guys is they have a great understanding now that it's kind of a clean slate. And as I told them today, the guys, it's amazing that the guys who worked the hardest are the guys that get the most minutes.
REPORTER: You're one of six coaches in the history of college basketball to have 100 wins in the first four seasons as head coach. What has been the general recipe for success over that time and what do you really attribute that success to?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think first and foremost I've been fortunate to coach some great players, and I make no mistakes about that, that that's one of the biggest keys is coaching great players. I think that the second thing is we've been able to, you know, come in and implement a system and get guys to buy in and, you know, a lot of times you struggle. As I told the guys today, that's one of the biggest obstacles we have to overcome is trusting the system and buying into the system and, you know, we've been, I feel, very blessed to have the success that we've had up to this time and, you know, hopefully we can continue.
REPORTER: You said Andy Geiger didn't contact you until about two weeks into the process. I wonder, did anybody from Ohio State before that contact you and were you surprised not to have heard from him since that last meeting?
COACH MATTA: No. Number one, I'd not heard from anybody from Ohio State and, number two, I think what Mr. Geiger was doing was surveying the land and seeing what exactly was going on and what he felt in his heart was best and I had no problem whatsoever with when I was contacted and how he went about it.
REPORTER: Coach, athletically speaking, you've come from Xavier, which is obviously basketball, here you'll have to play obviously in the shadow of a renowned football program. Keeping in mind that the coach of that football program is sitting right back here, what are your thoughts on playing second fiddle, if you will, to Ohio State football?
COACH MATTA: I think, number one, we do have a great, great football program and Coach Tressel is a guy that I've admired for a long time and I've followed every step he's made here. He's one guy that -- I don't listen to talk radio, but every time his show is on and I'm in the area, I grab that. I read what he does with his team and how they go about winning. And I really believe, in my opinion, as I look at this, that that is probably the greatest asset that we have to have a man like him coaching our football team and the program that we have. I couldn't be happier. The fact that I play the second chair, that does not bother me. I've always been a huge Buckeye fan.
REPORTER: What does it mean to you to have him seated here at your press conference?
COACH MATTA: I think it says a lot about who he is and what he stands for. Coach wrote me a note after the season this year and it was something that really -- I kept it in my top right-hand drawer and I looked at it a couple times through this process, because he said, "Way to make the state proud," and "Go Buckeyes," he put that first, and, "Go Musketeers," he put that second, and I thought that was a class thing to do. But I feel his passion for the State of Ohio and obviously the Ohio State University.
REPORTER: You said one of the big obstacles was buying into the system, what do you mean by that exactly? What is hard to buy into?
COACH MATTA: I think simply the way we execute offensively, the way we -- the sets and things that we run, the defense, probably most importantly is the defense that we play and having an understanding of how and why we want to do things. And first and foremost as I mentioned earlier, our premise is based on the team and getting all 13 guys to buy into each other and what we're trying to accomplish on the court.
REPORTER: Do you have any anxiety with -- the NCAA apparently on campus or has repeatedly been on campus and there seems to be a revelation ongoing, it seems, with payments, with academic fraud, at least allegations of such. Do you have any trepidation or anxiety that maybe the worst of this hasn't arrived yet, that you might end up with sanctions?
COACH MATTA: First of all, I'm a coach. I always have anxiety. I think that, you know, that's something that I'm prepared to deal with as it comes. I mean, obviously I have no control over it and that was something that I did think about when it happened -- or when I came to Ohio State, but I'm willing to do whatever we need to do to help the process through and get going.
REPORTER: Coach, what was the meeting, your meeting with the Xavier players like? Were there any -- did you detect any hard feelings with how sudden this all came about?
COACH MATTA: No, no. It was funny, it's always hard to say good-bye to a team, because they're the ones that got you the next job or they're the ones that got you fired. And in my case, I've been fortunate, the guys that have played for me are the guys that have helped give me, what I said, a great job. And you build relationships, but as you go through, every guy understood. And one player actually stood up and said, hey, Coach has done a great job with us, and this is the second time this has happened to us. We will survive.
And I know that. I knew in Sean getting the job, that never -- it bothered me to leave the kids, because I love them dearly, but I knew Sean taking over, they will not miss a beat, and that was what, I think, pushed me over the edge knowing that he was going to get the job and that those guys were going to be taken care of.
REPORTER: Have you hired a staff yet, Coach?
COACH MATTA: I haven't. I've got actually here Bill Comar, John Groce, Brandon Miller and Alan Major, those guys have all been with me for three years and Brandon just finished his first year. Sean and I have been working right now, as Sean and I have talked, we have a family and we want to take care of everybody in our family and help them get through what they want to do through Xavier and Ohio State. I've said this, I felt like I had the greatest staff in the country and I can assure you I'll put together the greatest staff in the country here.
REPORTER: On the discussion between Ohio teams, will you play Xavier?
COACH MATTA: Not right now.
REPORTER: 2005?
COACH MATTA: I don't know what the significance would be right now with all this going on, you know. Both of us need some time to let us go through things in our respective programs.
REPORTER: In your discussions with Mr. Geiger or Dr. Holbrook or anyone at Ohio State, have you been told that you cannot recruit partial qualifiers or have you been told that Ohio State will recommend that it make itself ineligible for post-season play this coming season?
COACH MATTA: No.
REPORTER: Neither case?
COACH MATTA: Neither case. No, never came up.
REPORTER: Have you talked to Sean Miller since yesterday?
COACH MATTA: Yeah, probably about 10 times and, you know, we just -- when you talk to a guy 20 times a day and you don't see him for a day, you probably talk to him 10 times that day. Sean's a great friend and, you know, as I said, I could not be happier for him and have got great confidence in what he's going to do. So we've talked about everything.
REPORTER: Now that you're heading on the road to recruit, it's going to be difficult, what do you tell kids when you don't know what's going to happen with the NCAA ruling and also how do you find your way around when you don't know very well?
COACH MATTA: It's funny you ask that because yesterday John and I were in New Jersey and we didn't even have Ohio State gear on so we stood against the wall like this the whole time, so they knew what we were doing. In the recruiting process, right now -- we're in a bad situation right now because we have yet to be able to make a phone call as the coaches of Ohio State University because right now is the period where you can't call anybody. So honestly it's hard to say as long as recruits are not at home right now, you can make no phone calls to coaches or parents or the kids, so we're battling that one.
REPORTER: Following up on recruiting, what's sort of your approach, do you go after a kid who is pretty sure about leaving in a year or so or do you go after maybe a less talented player that's going to stick around?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think each case would be different in that. I had the luxury of coaching a first-round pick in David West, and David was a young man who walked in on Monday and told me after his junior year that he was going to declare himself for the draft. And I said, congratulations, great, we knew he was going to be a first-round pick. He was going to get the guaranteed money that he deserved. And the next day, he announced he was staying because of his teammates and the program, and so you get cases like that, guys who want their education, want the degree, and want to do what is best for not only himself but his team. If you stumble across a guy like that, we would definitely look deeper into that. But I think college basketball is changing. It really is, with the young kids coming out.
STEVE SNAPP: We'll take one more question.
REPORTER: You inherited a team that was 14-16 a year ago with no post season. Without putting a number on it, what is a realistic expectation?
COACH MATTA: Tell you how new I am, I don't even know who we're playing next year, so -- I know the Big Ten schedule and I will say this: I've never been a guy that has predicted wins and losses. I just know that I want in January, February, and March for Ohio State to be playing their best basketball.
STEVE SNAPP: Thank you, Coach. Coach will be available, Mr. Geiger's available.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Senior Forward Terence Dials
On the process of selecting a head coach
"I'm really glad that the process is over and we can get back to focusing on what we have to do to get better as a team. He (Thad Matta) has a very good track record and I'm really looking forward to this season."
On the coaching change
"It's really sad to see Coach O'Brien leave, but I am very excited to play for Coach Matta this season."
On being on the selection committee
"It was a new experience being on the committee, but I think we have a great coach in place for this season."
Junior Forward Matt Sylvester
On new head coach Thad Matta
"I'm real excited. He's a guy from Cincinnati, I'm a guy from Cincinnati. Now our team has got a clean slate and we can kind of start over."
On the end of the hiring process
"I'm relieved that it's over. I think we found the right guy. Coach Matta will be great for us. Everything I've ever heard about Coach Matta were great things."
Senior guard Tony Stockman
On new head coach Thad Matta
"I'm sure what he wants to do is great for our program. He's excited to be here, and that's good for us. His coming in gives us a different outlook. I'm excited about the style of play he brings and I think it's one that really fits this team well."
Sophomore forward Ivan Harris
On new head coach Thad Matta
"I'm very impressed. I see in the way he talks (that he) sounds very open."
On Coach Matta's toughness
"That's what we need: a coach like that, to push us."
On adjusting to Coach Matta's style of play
"I don't think it will be too difficult. I think we have the team to run, so we just need to go out and have fun. Now we just have to step it up to the next level."
Transcipt and quotes from an official release at ohiostatebuckeyes.com. It is presented here for the sake of conversation and easy access. Refer to the official website for more in-depth coverage.
As supplied by the OSU Athletic Department via ohiostatebuckeyes.com
STEVE SNAPP: Good afternoon, everyone. Delighted to have you here this afternoon. This is a very exciting day. We are very pleased to be able to introduce our new basketball coach to you. Before we hear from Coach Matta, however, we will have some introductory remarks from Director of Athletics Andy Geiger and Dr. Karen Holbrook, the president of the Ohio State University.
After Coach Matta's prepared remarks, we will take questions from the floor. We would appreciate it if you would identify yourself both with your name and your affiliation so he can put a name with the face. After the question and answer period, we will have time for some one-on-ones. We need to be out of here by 4:30. Coach Matta has some commitments we need to get to. We'll have time for one-on-ones both with Coach Matta and Mr. Geiger as well as players on the current team who are here today. NCAA rules do not permit you to interview the in-coming freshmen who are here. While they can be here at the press conference, they cannot be interviewed, but the other members of the team are available for interviews.
Anyone who has a special request or an interview a little later with Coach Matta, please see Dan Wallenberg, and he will arrange that for you and we'll try to get that done a little bit later. Also, we'll have a complete transcript of the formal part of this press conference available on our web site at ohiostatebuckeyes.com at about 6:00. With that, it's my pleasure to turn it over to Ohio State Director of Athletics, Andy Geiger.
ANDY GEIGER: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you all for being here. I would like to start off with just a few thank yous, if you will. First of all, the last couple of days have been really pretty hectic for the people that operate this building, that run this building. They've had two shows in the last two days including one setting up right now, and their effort to accommodate us with this process has been something that I really appreciate, so to the Jerome Schottenstein staff, a heartfelt thanks.
I would also very much like to thank the committee. I will say that the team is not here right now because they were scheduled to lift this afternoon, and the coach thought that was a higher priority. So they're working, but towards the end of that they can be available for questions.
Our committee worked very hard, first of all. I'd like to express my appreciation to Michelle Willis and John Bruno who traveled around the country with me for a few days talking to folks. Other members of the committee, Michelle is our senior women's administrator and associate director of athletics. John Bruno is professor of psychology and is our faculty athletics representative. Clark Kellogg cannot be here today, but he was a tremendous help to us through the interview process and the preparation process. He's with his son at the national AAU tournament in Clarksville, Tennessee. Rick Smith, former basketball captain, thank you for your service. Bill Hosket, Ohio State basketball captain, former All-American and analyst on television, was just an enormous tower of strength. Dr. Joe Barr, professor of optometry, chair of the athletic council. Tom Hof, associate of athletics for marketing, and Terence Dials, I think is here, is he not? So Terence will be here for questions after the formal part of the press conference.
Also meeting with the candidates when they came to campus was chairman of our board of trustees Tammy Longaberger. Tammy, thank you so much for taking your valuable time for helping us with this process. Also a tremendous help and support to me throughout this has been our president, Karen Holbrook. She has been a partner in this and let me remind folks that it says very clearly in the NCAA handbook that the individual responsible for the conduct of intercollegiate athletics on every campus is the president of the university. She does so in a collegial, supportive, consultant-type way that I find absolutely invaluable and I treasure her in working with us the way she has supported us through this process. To say a few words is the president of the Ohio State University, Dr. Karen Holbrook, Karen?
PRESIDENT HOLBROOK: Thank you, Andy, very much. And thank you for making this wonderful announcement at a perfectly appropriate time as today was our board of trustees meeting and we are pleased to tell you -- I'll probably be the first one to tell you -- that it was passed. You are a member. You are a new Buckeye and we're delighted that you are here. It was brought up at the trustees meeting today. And I'm delighted -- along the side are many of the trustees who are with us. They, too, are interested in what's going on in athletics and academics and everything in this university.
This has been a tremendous process and Andy and I will thank the university and you for the tireless hours you have taken bringing in first-rate candidates that Chairman Longaberger and John Bruno and Andy and I had an opportunity to meet with one on one. I have to tell you we were extraordinarily impressed when we met Coach Matta. We liked what he said. The liked the way he said it. We liked the record that he had. We liked the fact that he's a winning coach. But he's a winning coach in not only in terms of what the team does, but how the students working with him succeed. Looking at the grade point average of the students coming in, and the students on the team, it is escalated very much. He fits in with the coaches at the Ohio State University and I have a challenge for you, of course. We haven't had a (national championship) team for the last 44 years and I know that that's longer than you've been on this earth, but we expect that we're going to be working toward that as a goal and we know that you're going to lead the basketball team and lead the young men who play men's basketball with us to great successes in the classroom, on the court, and throughout the university.
So thank you for becoming Buckeyes. Welcome to you. Welcome to Barbara. Welcome to Ali and Emily. We're delighted to have you as Buckeyes. And one closing comment I had asked Coach Matta when I interviewed him, how long did he think he might stay here and he said he'd like to raise his family as Buckeyes, so we're planning on having you here for a very long time and welcome you most sincerely. Thank you very much.
ANDY GEIGER: Thank you, Karen. I would also like to express my appreciation to members of Jim O'Brien's staff, Dave Eggelhoff, who's the video coordinator, Monte Mathis and LeMonte Stone, Randy Shrout, director of basketball operations for their very tireless work and their continuous efforts on behalf of our program during the interim period. I also want to salute interim head coach Rick Boyages, who is a remarkable human being and somebody we plan on having at Ohio State for a very long time in an administrative capacity that I'm working with him on. He is a wonderful resource for our athletic program and for this university, a rather unique individual and I treasure his intellect. I treasure his instincts and I look forward to having him with us for at least the foreseeable future.
Our search was deliberate. You all have been extremely patient through all this. Some of you can smile a little bit if you want to. We have taken our time on purpose. This program has taken something of a jolt. It has been a little bit difficult, to say the least, in the past several days and months. So we were not, for a variety of reasons, rushing through this, as you all pointed out to us daily.
We, however, had our eye on the ball and focused through, I think, all of this in getting the very, very best that we could get and we made absolutely sure about everything. We did exhaustive background checks. We did all of the due diligence that the Ohio State University should do, particularly in the circumstance in all candor in which we find ourselves. Coach Matta today met with the team, several of the team are here. Apparently the lifting is going on a little bit later, so you can chat with them a little bit later on.
Thad Matta is the son of a coach and athletic director. His wife Barbara is the daughter of a coach and athletic director. They both have grown up in coaching/athletic director families. Sports has been in their culture all of their lives.
As the search committee, we started on our first day looking for the right characteristics for the ideal coach. We worked on building a strong man, if you will. Just exactly what is a coach? And we wanted first and foremost a teacher and educator and Dr. Holbrook covered Thad's record in that area, and we're very impressed with that. We are overwhelmed with his sense of energy, his sense of focus. We wanted somebody who has enormous respect and love for the game. The game is a way of life, the game of basketball, for the right coach and we certainly have somebody with those characteristics. Integrity and compliance, obeying the rules, all of those kinds of things, very, very important aspects. Intelligence and competence and somebody who is an incredible competitor.
We have that person in.Thad Matta. His wife Barbara is over here. Barbara can give a wave. We have Ali and Emily. We have Barbara's sister, Katie and Deborah, and Mr. and Mrs. Matta are here and Mr. and Mrs. Britton, Barbara's parents are here. So we're delighted to have the entire family who drove in from various places in the midwest to be with us today. Ladies and gentlemen, the head basketball coach for men at the Ohio State University,.Thad Matta.
COACH MATTA: Thank you, Andy. I think, first of all, I'd like to thank Andy Geiger, Dr. Holbrook, the committee, for this opportunity. You know, there's times in your life when you know something's right and to be a part of the Ohio State University, this is the greatest day of my life. And in the year 2000, we were moving from Butler University and I had been a head coach there at my alma mater, and as we were packing stuff up, one of my neighbors, a man named Mert Prophet, a man who had been in athletics for 60 years of his life, showed up at my door, and he said,.Thad, I hate to see you leave, but I'm proud of you and I know you're going to do well. He said, I want to give you a going away present. And he reached into his pocket and put it in my hand and he closed it, and as I opened it, I looked, and I said, Mert, I'm not going to Ohio State. And he says, you need to hang on to that, one of these days, it's going to work for you. And remember his last name was Prophet.
As this decision went on, there were a lot of tough things that I had to go through personally, but always keeping in mind what was important in trying to reach my goals, and I think that one thing I'd like to cover in regards to leaving Xavier University, I deeply regret the perception of what transpired. And my intentions were never to demean Xavier University or the program. Dawn Rogers, the athletic director there, is one of my dearest friends and she's a great athletic director, and her and I have made a commitment to each other that we would work on this hand-in-hand, her and I. Through the process, she knew everything that was relayed to me, to her. And I take great pride in the three years that I was there and what our kids were able to accomplish.
But I think with that said, I'm closing the door on that and I'm opening the door at the Ohio State University. And I believe this: This is the greatest job in the world for Thad Matta. I'm fully aware of the state that this program's in right now. And I stand before you today to let you know I've accepted this position for one reason and one reason only, and that is to bring Ohio State basketball back into national province.
I do realize that we've got challenges, but I'm here to roll up the sleeves, go to work, and bring this thing back. I really believe in what this university stands for, what the administration all the way down stands for, for what our fans, alumni, the guys that have worn the scarlet and gray or have set the tradition for us to build this program back to where it belongs is what I'm here for.
Once again, I say that there are the challenges, there's going to be the obstacles. As I told the players today, the Ohio state way is now in effect. And that is a phrase that we use with our players and that is what this program will be built on, the Ohio State way.
We've got a long, long road ahead of us, but as I told them, it starts right now. As far as where we are today, I think that, you know, it is a crazy time for those of you who know a lot about college basketball. We started our recruiting period yesterday. John Groce and I actually started the morning at 6:00 a.m. on a flight from New Jersey today to get back to Columbus, out recruiting yesterday. We've got a long way to go. The number one thing that I have to do right now is find my way around this building as well as get to know our players because they are the most important people in the program. And as Steve alluded to, after this, I'm going to sit down and meet with each guy and get the ball rolling in the right direction as far as our relationships go, because as I told them, this program is going to be built on trust. It's going to be built on hard work. It's going to be built on dedication and commitment and those conditions will always be unconditional. And right now unconditional is a key word, regardless of the circumstances, we will be unconditional in every phase of our basketball program.
As we talk, I know I'll get questions about this style of play, you know, I'm bringing to Ohio State, a fun, exciting style of basketball. I want to play fast, as I told the players, but we will play smart. I'm not a guy that says, boy, listen to this crowd, they love how fast we're running, I'm more concerned about the shots we're getting or the turnovers we may be committing. We will be the hardest working, toughest team you've ever seen. We will defend, we will play smart, and we will play hard. And most importantly, as I told them, we will play together as a team.
Now, I have to tell a quick story about how I came to my decision to take this job. After I flew home Wednesday afternoon, I forgot my cell phone in my house, so I was driving 58 miles an hour in a 40-mile-an-hour zone and a police officer wanted to stop me and let me know that. So she got up to the side of the car, she said, sir, you seem to be in a hurry. And I said, yes, ma'am, I am. And she said, is there a problem. I said, well, there is. I said, right now I'm kind of torn. I'm thinking about taking a new job day. She said, what are you doing? I said, I'm a basketball coach. She said, oh, really, where are you at. I said, Xavier University. She said, really, I went to Ohio State. I said, I just took the job. And she goes, have a great day. So, with that, I'd like to open this up for questions and whatever you have.
STEVE SNAPP: Remember, please identify yourself for the record.
REPORTER: On June 29th, one day after Andy Geiger said he met you at the airport, in an interview you denied being a candidate for the job and denied being contacted by Ohio State, at what point did you think you were a candidate for this job and what changed between June 29th and the point at which you accepted the job?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think it's a lot like today, I flew in from Newark, and I hadn't shaved, I hadn't eaten, and I got into my house and my family was there and it was pretty hectic in there. So I went up, I jumped in the shower, I walked into my closet, and I grabbed my suit I knew I wanted to wear, it was my lucky suit. And all of a sudden I looked and I had a lot of ties there, and I grabbed one tie and I said, well, I want to wear this one. Then I changed my mind. I said, no, I'm going to wear this one. Then I saw another one over here, I grabbed it. I said, I'm going to wear this one.
I don't know the exact days, but when you go through this process, there's a lot of times where you change your mind. You don't know for sure what you're going to do. You don't know if you're going to be offered the job. As I said, I did not want to ever demean the program that we built there. Next question.
REPORTER: You said you're fully aware of the state this program is in. I wonder if you could give us your perception of what state this program is in.
COACH MATTA: Well, I think honestly it's something that Mr. Geiger and I have spoken about, and one thing that is very positive to me is how quickly they acted to comply with the NCAA. I don't think that, number one, I can answer or anybody at Ohio State can answer exactly where it is. I just know that there are -- there's some things being investigated and when I say that I'm aware that that's going on.
REPORTER: Were you given any insight or did you have great concern during your interview process to maybe try to get a handle on that situation? I assume that was of great concern to you.
COACH MATTA: It was. But as I step back, and Andy was unable to give me anything definite because he doesn't know for sure, as nobody does, and I felt that in dealing with this, I'll take whatever's given to us and go. I thought the job was better. I thought it was a great job and I wanted to be a part of it.
REPORTER: One thing that makes fans a little bit nervous is this is your third job in five years. Is there anything you can say to people to assure them that this is indeed a career job for you?
COACH MATTA: Yeah, I think that, you know, for me personally, I'm a very goal-oriented person. I remember back in the days my dad and I, family sitting there watching Big Ten basketball, and I grew up in what I would consider the heart, a small little town right on the Indiana border, of Big Ten basketball. And I'm going into, I think this will be my sixth or seventh year living in the State of Ohio and I'd always viewed Ohio State as a job that could be the greatest job for Thad Matta. And as I look at this, I think this is the pinnacle for me. I don't think there's a better place that I could coach basketball in other than Ohio State University.
REPORTER: Elaborate on that, if you will. You've said that a couple times. You said this is the greatest job for Thad Matta, explain that if you could.
COACH MATTA: Well, I think that every move that I've ever made, I've felt better about it. I felt that it was a better opportunity for me to achieve things. There's no quick way to get to the top. You know, as an assistant coach, I did the same thing. I had to climb the ladder until I felt like I was at the top. And today I stand here and feel like I've reached the top.
REPORTER: One year at Butler and three at Xavier, would you say your quick moves are over, do you imagine a little longer stay?
COACH MATTA: You can ask my wife. I sure as hell hope so.
REPORTER: Some people, including former Buckeye players, say we're the third or fourth best program in the state right now, where do you think it is, how do you get it back -- we're just talking about Ohio right now, obviously the sanctions as they come are part of that.
COACH MATTA: I think -- I don't know exactly where it is on the scale. I know where I want it to go. There have been some teams in the state that have had great success. There's great coaches in this state. There's great programs in this state. You know, honestly, the staff that I have here, the focus that I have is not to get Ohio State University, the best school in Ohio, let's get Ohio State to be the best school in the country.
REPORTER: Regardless of when you considered yourself a candidate or not a candidate, when did you find yourself interested in the job?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think when things went down on June 6th, people were very quickly -- acted very quickly to point to me that I should be interested in this job. I looked at this and said, I think Ohio State is a great job, but I felt like I had a great job at the time. I was in no hurry to make a quick decision. The one thing, I think how I operate is, I really don't get too concerned about things I can't control. I want to control -- I want to deal with the things that I can control. And that's exactly how I went about this. And as time marched on through the process, there were days that I felt like, I think this would be a great job for me. There were days I went into the Cintas Center, saw our players, and said, I don't think I can leave. There was days like Tuesday night, up until about 10:15, Mr. Geiger and I had a long conversation about whether or not I was coming Wednesday or not. As I left for here, I had a good feeling, but I wasn't sure where I was going to go. And at that point in the afternoon, it really felt right to me.
REPORTER: When did you know? What time did you feel right?
COACH MATTA: After I told the officer, it was right for me. No, I would say Mr. Geiger and I came to an agreement, I think 6:30 was the time that he basically said, welcome, welcome to the Ohio State family.
REPORTER: Coach, when was your first contact with Mr. Geiger?
COACH MATTA: Would have been -- it was a Thursday, 15 days ago maybe.
ANDY GEIGER: By telephone.
COACH MATTA: Yeah, by telephone.
REPORTER: How many times did you meet in person? When was the first?
COACH MATTA: We met in person twice. This is the third time today.
STEVE SNAPP: Let's go back in the back here.
REPORTER: Do you have any timetable for filling your other assistant spots?
COACH MATTA: No, I really don't. I think right now, kind of going through the process and getting a feel for Ohio State, getting a feel for our players, most importantly, I really don't have a timetable that I want it done by, by this certain date.
REPORTER: What's your position generally on playing under Ohio schools and specifically playing the University of Cincinnati in a nonleague game?
COACH MATTA: You know, I don't mind the fact of playing other Ohio schools. What I want to do is sit down and we try to look at our schedule and say, what's best for our basketball team. You know, the Cincinnati game, you know, I've just gone through three years of all-out combat and war from the Cross-Town Shootout. I think that we -- that would be a possibility. I think a lot of times coaches take heat for not playing a team when the other guy may not want to play either and I don't know what Coach Huggins' feelings would be on that. I guess it would be the I-71 Shootout.
REPORTER: He said repeatedly that he would play Ohio State if Ohio State would play him.
COACH MATTA: Is that right? I haven't talked to Coach in a couple months.
REPORTER: How much do you know about the talent, the guys that you have right now, the time that you've spent with them and how do you catch up on the kind of basketball team you're getting now?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think -- I get to see, I think, Ohio State and us had a couple common opponents this year and I saw them on tape one time and on television one time this year. A lot of these guys I've seen through the recruiting trails, I actually tried to recruit a couple of them and was unable to get them, but I think that the beauty for these guys is they have a great understanding now that it's kind of a clean slate. And as I told them today, the guys, it's amazing that the guys who worked the hardest are the guys that get the most minutes.
REPORTER: You're one of six coaches in the history of college basketball to have 100 wins in the first four seasons as head coach. What has been the general recipe for success over that time and what do you really attribute that success to?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think first and foremost I've been fortunate to coach some great players, and I make no mistakes about that, that that's one of the biggest keys is coaching great players. I think that the second thing is we've been able to, you know, come in and implement a system and get guys to buy in and, you know, a lot of times you struggle. As I told the guys today, that's one of the biggest obstacles we have to overcome is trusting the system and buying into the system and, you know, we've been, I feel, very blessed to have the success that we've had up to this time and, you know, hopefully we can continue.
REPORTER: You said Andy Geiger didn't contact you until about two weeks into the process. I wonder, did anybody from Ohio State before that contact you and were you surprised not to have heard from him since that last meeting?
COACH MATTA: No. Number one, I'd not heard from anybody from Ohio State and, number two, I think what Mr. Geiger was doing was surveying the land and seeing what exactly was going on and what he felt in his heart was best and I had no problem whatsoever with when I was contacted and how he went about it.
REPORTER: Coach, athletically speaking, you've come from Xavier, which is obviously basketball, here you'll have to play obviously in the shadow of a renowned football program. Keeping in mind that the coach of that football program is sitting right back here, what are your thoughts on playing second fiddle, if you will, to Ohio State football?
COACH MATTA: I think, number one, we do have a great, great football program and Coach Tressel is a guy that I've admired for a long time and I've followed every step he's made here. He's one guy that -- I don't listen to talk radio, but every time his show is on and I'm in the area, I grab that. I read what he does with his team and how they go about winning. And I really believe, in my opinion, as I look at this, that that is probably the greatest asset that we have to have a man like him coaching our football team and the program that we have. I couldn't be happier. The fact that I play the second chair, that does not bother me. I've always been a huge Buckeye fan.
REPORTER: What does it mean to you to have him seated here at your press conference?
COACH MATTA: I think it says a lot about who he is and what he stands for. Coach wrote me a note after the season this year and it was something that really -- I kept it in my top right-hand drawer and I looked at it a couple times through this process, because he said, "Way to make the state proud," and "Go Buckeyes," he put that first, and, "Go Musketeers," he put that second, and I thought that was a class thing to do. But I feel his passion for the State of Ohio and obviously the Ohio State University.
REPORTER: You said one of the big obstacles was buying into the system, what do you mean by that exactly? What is hard to buy into?
COACH MATTA: I think simply the way we execute offensively, the way we -- the sets and things that we run, the defense, probably most importantly is the defense that we play and having an understanding of how and why we want to do things. And first and foremost as I mentioned earlier, our premise is based on the team and getting all 13 guys to buy into each other and what we're trying to accomplish on the court.
REPORTER: Do you have any anxiety with -- the NCAA apparently on campus or has repeatedly been on campus and there seems to be a revelation ongoing, it seems, with payments, with academic fraud, at least allegations of such. Do you have any trepidation or anxiety that maybe the worst of this hasn't arrived yet, that you might end up with sanctions?
COACH MATTA: First of all, I'm a coach. I always have anxiety. I think that, you know, that's something that I'm prepared to deal with as it comes. I mean, obviously I have no control over it and that was something that I did think about when it happened -- or when I came to Ohio State, but I'm willing to do whatever we need to do to help the process through and get going.
REPORTER: Coach, what was the meeting, your meeting with the Xavier players like? Were there any -- did you detect any hard feelings with how sudden this all came about?
COACH MATTA: No, no. It was funny, it's always hard to say good-bye to a team, because they're the ones that got you the next job or they're the ones that got you fired. And in my case, I've been fortunate, the guys that have played for me are the guys that have helped give me, what I said, a great job. And you build relationships, but as you go through, every guy understood. And one player actually stood up and said, hey, Coach has done a great job with us, and this is the second time this has happened to us. We will survive.
And I know that. I knew in Sean getting the job, that never -- it bothered me to leave the kids, because I love them dearly, but I knew Sean taking over, they will not miss a beat, and that was what, I think, pushed me over the edge knowing that he was going to get the job and that those guys were going to be taken care of.
REPORTER: Have you hired a staff yet, Coach?
COACH MATTA: I haven't. I've got actually here Bill Comar, John Groce, Brandon Miller and Alan Major, those guys have all been with me for three years and Brandon just finished his first year. Sean and I have been working right now, as Sean and I have talked, we have a family and we want to take care of everybody in our family and help them get through what they want to do through Xavier and Ohio State. I've said this, I felt like I had the greatest staff in the country and I can assure you I'll put together the greatest staff in the country here.
REPORTER: On the discussion between Ohio teams, will you play Xavier?
COACH MATTA: Not right now.
REPORTER: 2005?
COACH MATTA: I don't know what the significance would be right now with all this going on, you know. Both of us need some time to let us go through things in our respective programs.
REPORTER: In your discussions with Mr. Geiger or Dr. Holbrook or anyone at Ohio State, have you been told that you cannot recruit partial qualifiers or have you been told that Ohio State will recommend that it make itself ineligible for post-season play this coming season?
COACH MATTA: No.
REPORTER: Neither case?
COACH MATTA: Neither case. No, never came up.
REPORTER: Have you talked to Sean Miller since yesterday?
COACH MATTA: Yeah, probably about 10 times and, you know, we just -- when you talk to a guy 20 times a day and you don't see him for a day, you probably talk to him 10 times that day. Sean's a great friend and, you know, as I said, I could not be happier for him and have got great confidence in what he's going to do. So we've talked about everything.
REPORTER: Now that you're heading on the road to recruit, it's going to be difficult, what do you tell kids when you don't know what's going to happen with the NCAA ruling and also how do you find your way around when you don't know very well?
COACH MATTA: It's funny you ask that because yesterday John and I were in New Jersey and we didn't even have Ohio State gear on so we stood against the wall like this the whole time, so they knew what we were doing. In the recruiting process, right now -- we're in a bad situation right now because we have yet to be able to make a phone call as the coaches of Ohio State University because right now is the period where you can't call anybody. So honestly it's hard to say as long as recruits are not at home right now, you can make no phone calls to coaches or parents or the kids, so we're battling that one.
REPORTER: Following up on recruiting, what's sort of your approach, do you go after a kid who is pretty sure about leaving in a year or so or do you go after maybe a less talented player that's going to stick around?
COACH MATTA: Well, I think each case would be different in that. I had the luxury of coaching a first-round pick in David West, and David was a young man who walked in on Monday and told me after his junior year that he was going to declare himself for the draft. And I said, congratulations, great, we knew he was going to be a first-round pick. He was going to get the guaranteed money that he deserved. And the next day, he announced he was staying because of his teammates and the program, and so you get cases like that, guys who want their education, want the degree, and want to do what is best for not only himself but his team. If you stumble across a guy like that, we would definitely look deeper into that. But I think college basketball is changing. It really is, with the young kids coming out.
STEVE SNAPP: We'll take one more question.
REPORTER: You inherited a team that was 14-16 a year ago with no post season. Without putting a number on it, what is a realistic expectation?
COACH MATTA: Tell you how new I am, I don't even know who we're playing next year, so -- I know the Big Ten schedule and I will say this: I've never been a guy that has predicted wins and losses. I just know that I want in January, February, and March for Ohio State to be playing their best basketball.
STEVE SNAPP: Thank you, Coach. Coach will be available, Mr. Geiger's available.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Senior Forward Terence Dials
On the process of selecting a head coach
"I'm really glad that the process is over and we can get back to focusing on what we have to do to get better as a team. He (Thad Matta) has a very good track record and I'm really looking forward to this season."
On the coaching change
"It's really sad to see Coach O'Brien leave, but I am very excited to play for Coach Matta this season."
On being on the selection committee
"It was a new experience being on the committee, but I think we have a great coach in place for this season."
Junior Forward Matt Sylvester
On new head coach Thad Matta
"I'm real excited. He's a guy from Cincinnati, I'm a guy from Cincinnati. Now our team has got a clean slate and we can kind of start over."
On the end of the hiring process
"I'm relieved that it's over. I think we found the right guy. Coach Matta will be great for us. Everything I've ever heard about Coach Matta were great things."
Senior guard Tony Stockman
On new head coach Thad Matta
"I'm sure what he wants to do is great for our program. He's excited to be here, and that's good for us. His coming in gives us a different outlook. I'm excited about the style of play he brings and I think it's one that really fits this team well."
Sophomore forward Ivan Harris
On new head coach Thad Matta
"I'm very impressed. I see in the way he talks (that he) sounds very open."
On Coach Matta's toughness
"That's what we need: a coach like that, to push us."
On adjusting to Coach Matta's style of play
"I don't think it will be too difficult. I think we have the team to run, so we just need to go out and have fun. Now we just have to step it up to the next level."
Transcipt and quotes from an official release at ohiostatebuckeyes.com. It is presented here for the sake of conversation and easy access. Refer to the official website for more in-depth coverage.