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

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BayBuck said:
. Mediocrity sucks right now, but I can recall a lot darker days for this program.
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Curious, when? Mind you we lost to Rutgers, have gotten worse every year in six years, pay the 7th highest coaches salary, have a relatively new yet terrible arena, have terrible recruiting, have zero effort on court, 4th best team in the state maybe, and fans are far more interested in the men's volleyball team. So when?
 
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Has anyone looked at the assistants Matta has had during his entire time. It's entirely possible that once that early group left he found maybe 1 more good one because clearly the assistants talent has waned and they aren't doing a very good job recruiting. Maybe it's not been Matta's doing at all maybe it was his strong assistants and he road it?
 
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greyscarlet said:
Curious, when? Mind you we lost to Rutgers, have gotten worse every year in six years, pay the 7th highest coaches salary, have a relatively new yet terrible arena, have terrible recruiting, have zero effort on court, 4th best team in the state maybe, and fans are far more interested in the men's volleyball team. So when?
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When Jami Bosley was arrested for breaking into cars and Damon Stringer/Trent Jackson were arrested for disorderly conduct, basically the final years of Randy Ayers were pretty bad.
 
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BayBuck said:
Fire Gene because he's giving our greatest bball coach ever a couple extra years at the end? The athletic department is a lot bigger than one (non-football) sport, and honestly it's not as dire as a lot of other situations I can imagine. Mediocrity sucks right now, but I can recall a lot darker days for this program.

I think Smith just has a ton of respect for Thad all around and is hoping for a miracle. Otherwise in a year or two, I expect him to pay up and make a good hire for Matta's successor.
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I agree the suggestion to fire Gene Smith over his decision to retain Thad is an overreaction. But I don't agree with the reasons I see repeatedly given for keeping Thad around another year or two.

"It's been worse."

Okay, so what? As long as things don't completely bottom out be happy with mediocrity? Yikes, what a philosophy for life.

"Thad's a good guy and he took us to two final fours."

Great, let's put a banner up in the arena and move forward. I'm all for acknowledging his past contributions, but I don't believe "hoping for a miracle" is a wise way to make business decisions. Basically it's an awareness of the reality of the situation - a mediocre team with a middle of the road recruiting class is likely to remain mediocre - but doggone it, we like the guy. So let's keep paying his big salary and charging supporters good money to watch a product we know isn't going anywhere, absent a "miracle". Really? This is where The Ohio State University is now?

I can like Thad AND think it's time for a change. The two thoughts are not mutually exclusive. But in the past 18 months he's had an entire recruiting class bail after one year, responded to it by publicly trashing them (don't think other recruits didn't notice), blamed negative recruiting for program decline, then lashed out in anger that anyone had the audacity to question whether he should be the coach next year. That's not the Thad Matta I remember from his first decade at tOSU. I don't know exactly how things got this way, but I do know I have zero confidence that this Thad Matta is going to have the success of the old one.
 
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I have watched OSU basketball for 35 years really, and I do not recall the effort level ever being as bad as the past couple of years have been. In fact, I do not recall a single season, or even a single player that has shown such a lack of effort and overall give a shit as the last two teams, with exception of a few players. Add in Amir Williams' effort, and it isn't even close. That is what bothers me more than anything. I can recall some mediocre Miller teams that didn't have IU's talent but they at least played hard. OSU basketball always showed effort, until Williams' shit show and then the past two teams with multiple players appearing to just be going through the motions and really not caring if they win or lose.
 
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Jake said:
I agree the suggestion to fire Gene Smith over his decision to retain Thad is an overreaction. But I don't agree with the reasons I see repeatedly given for keeping Thad around another year or two.

"It's been worse."

Okay, so what? As long as things don't completely bottom out be happy with mediocrity? Yikes, what a philosophy for life.

"Thad's a good guy and he took us to two final fours."

Great, let's put a banner up in the arena and move forward. I'm all for acknowledging his past contributions, but I don't believe "hoping for a miracle" is a wise way to make business decisions. Basically it's an awareness of the reality of the situation - a mediocre team with a middle of the road recruiting class is likely to remain mediocre - but doggone it, we like the guy. So let's keep paying his big salary and charging supporters good money to watch a product we know isn't going anywhere, absent a "miracle". Really? This is where The Ohio State University is now?

I can like Thad AND think it's time for a change. The two thoughts are not mutually exclusive. But in the past 18 months he's had an entire recruiting class bail after one year, responded to it by publicly trashing them (don't think other recruits didn't notice), blamed negative recruiting for program decline, then lashed out in anger that anyone had the audacity to question whether he should be the coach next year. That's not the Thad Matta I remember from his first decade at tOSU. I don't know exactly how things got this way, but I do know I have zero confidence that this Thad Matta is going to have the success of the old one.
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I don't disagree with any of this. I'm just being realistic. I would totally be okay with dropping the hammer and moving on to Archie Miller or whoever right now, but Gene Smith is keeping Matta around for now, and it's probably not going to be the end of the world.
 
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Hstead said:
I have watched OSU basketball for 35 years really, and I do not recall the effort level ever being as bad as the past couple of years have been. In fact, I do not recall a single season, or even a single player that has shown such a lack of effort and overall give a [Mark May] as the last two teams, with exception of a few players. Add in Amir Williams' effort, and it isn't even close. That is what bothers me more than anything. I can recall some mediocre Miller teams that didn't have IU's talent but they at least played hard. OSU basketball always showed effort, until Williams' [Mark May] show and then the past two teams with multiple players appearing to just be going through the motions and really not caring if they win or lose.
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Gary Williams? I know some people were bitter about his quick exit, but he really turned the program around.

Nothing was worse than Randy Ayers. Gary Williams handed him the keys to a Ferrari, and in a couple of years he managed to thug up the program, get put on probation and essentially destroy Ohio State basketball. Probably the worst coach in any sport in Ohio State history.

BVistahC said:
When Jami Bosley was arrested for breaking into cars and Damon Stringer/Trent Jackson were arrested for disorderly conduct, basically the final years of Randy Ayers were pretty bad.
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Didn't one player shoot out another player's tires? Let's not forget the gem of a Mr. Basketball from Indiana that Ayers brought in who tried to pump and run on a tank of gas and was busted down the road with a car full of reefer. And the Ohio Mr. Basketball (Greg Williams???), he was also just a straight up thug.
 
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ORD_Buckeye said:
Gary Williams? I know some people were bitter about his quick exit, but he really turned the program around.

Nothing was worse than Randy Ayers. Gary Williams handed him the keys to a Ferrari, and in a couple of years he managed to thug up the program, get put on probation and essentially destroy Ohio State basketball. Probably the worst coach in any sport in Ohio State history.



Didn't one player shoot out another player's tires? Let's not forget the gem of a Mr. Basketball from Indiana that Ayers brought in who tried to pump and run on a tank of gas and was busted down the road with a car full of reefer. And the Ohio Mr. Basketball (Greg Williams???), he was also just a straight up thug.
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Not Gary Williams, I loved Gary as our coach, definitely turned us around and Ayers was a disaster. I was talking about effort level, which OSU at least played with effort under Ayers.

The Williams' shit show I was referring to was Amir. I couldn't stomach watching that lazy MF'er walk up and down the court and stand in the paint and watch because he didn't give a flying fugg. He would have never seen the floor of one of my teams, no way in hell. I think the lackadaisical bullshidt started with Amir Williams.

I lay 100% of the blame of Amirs sorry ass effort on Thad. He should not have allowed that bullshidt to happen. Amir should have sat the damn bench or been told to find another school he gave a shidt about.
 
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Hstead said:
Not Gary Williams, I loved Gary as our coach, definitely turned us around and Ayers was a disaster. I was talking about effort level, which OSU at least played with effort under Ayers.

The Williams' [Mark May] show I was referring to was Amir. I couldn't stomach watching that lazy MF'er walk up and down the court and stand in the paint and watch because he didn't give a flying fugg. He would have never seen the floor of one of my teams, no way in hell. I think the lackadaisical bullshidt started with Amir Williams.

I lay 100% of the blame of Amirs sorry ass effort on Thad. He should not have allowed that bullshidt to happen. Amir should have sat the damn bench or been told to find another school he gave a shidt about.
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IMO Amir's class underperformed and started the spiral down .,I don't know if Thad was fully engaged because of his health and his assistants didn't step up.
 
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greyscarlet said:
Curious, when? Mind you we lost to Rutgers, have gotten worse every year in six years, pay the 7th highest coaches salary, have a relatively new yet terrible arena, have terrible recruiting, have zero effort on court, 4th best team in the state maybe, and fans are far more interested in the men's volleyball team. So when?
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1997-98. Michael Redd's freshman year. We had no point guard. I think we were running Carlos Davis out there. Also the last year at St. John Arena. I miss that place so much.
 
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