• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

OSU @ Indiana

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Hurl Bruce

Logmaster
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
14,653
Reaction score
25,841
Points
135
The Buckeyes went on the road and beat the #2 team in the nation on their senior night. Great, great win by the team with an all around defensive shut-down. They even survived the home cooking of Assembly Hall and the antics of TV Teddy Valentine.

All of the people that have been crapping on this team and its coach can come back now and remind me how bad everything is with the program. I'm not calling them a title team, but they should make it to the sweet 16 and have the talent to make the final four.
 
Thad is still a terrible coach. Anyone who says otherwise is a homer.
 
Thad has definitely improved though. You could see it in this game with the adjustments/substitutions he made.

Phenomenal win.
 
Dan Dakich put it pretty well. Seems like nobody understands matchups better than the Thad does.

I really wish Ross would get more minutes for more shooting on the floor with Thomas still.
 
Thad is still a terrible coach. Anyone who says otherwise is a homer.

Anyone who puts out this sort of statement doesn't have a clue.

Is Matta perfect? Of course not. Are there 10 coaches in college hoops that are better? Doubt it.

Consider this:

Matta has been a coach for 12 years (this is year 13). He has 8 conference championships (1 at Butler, 2 at Xavier, 5 at Ohio State), 1 NC game, 2 Final Fours, 3 Elite 8, and 5 Sweet 16.

Terrible.
 
And how many National Championship wins does he have?


That's what I thought.
 
The problem with Thad is his less than stellar ability to recruit outside the midwest...

He's really been hurt by their being average talent coming out of the core mid-west states the last few years and the few elite talents going elsewhere (Zeller for one)...

Thad as a coach is good and as a recruiter is still good but he needs to establish pipelines elsewhere around the map...

I'm not sure why anyone would be complaining about Matta; seems like just complaining for the sake of it..

He's transformed a football school to a football and basketball school.. Not sure too many coaches could do that...
 
So in the 13 years he has been coach there have been how many coaches with NC?? Oh that's right only 8. So there are only 8 good coaches in last 13 years??
 
He deserves a lot of credit for finally putting Craft on the court extended minutes with Shannon Scott. That has, without a single doubt, saved the season. At first glance, putting 2 average sized PG's in the game, who are both suspect outside shooters to put it mildly, would seem like death. Thad early on tried to use Shannon to spell Aaron and they'd play together for about 13 minutes a game. Shannon was only getting about 20 minutes a game total.

The problem is, this team can't shoot even if you're running Aaron Craft with Sam Thompson or Lenzelle Smith (who has been in a funk all Big 10 season outside of Northwestern game) at the 2g. Once you realize the shooting is really poor either way, there is very little downside to playing Craft and Scott together for extended minutes. Shannon Scott has been an All Big 10 defender this year and everyone knows how good Craft is on the ball. When they play together Craft takes the 2g primarily and has done a very good job.

Offensively, Shannon Scott can't shoot a lick, but he's probably the fastest player with the ball in his hands in the country in transition. The only other guy close is Trey Burke, and while Trey is a much better player, he doesn't carry the same speed Shannon does end-line to end-line. It just helps the Buckeyes offensively so much when they have 2 PG's on the court that can get the ball and go in an effort for transition buckets. But even if they have to get into a set offensively, Shannon and Aaron have both been exceptional over the last 3-4 games of dribble drive penetration and kicking out. It's been like watching a different team.

The other thing I'd give Thad a lot of credit for, is his willingness to play DeShaun Thomas at center. I haven't seen anyone mention it. Against Northwestern he pulled it out of the bag when they were using an unskilled center in the paint that provided very little scoring threat. They let Thomas check him defensively, while Thomas scorched Northwestern in the middle of their 2-3 match-up zone. Thad brought LaQuinton in as a PF, and the Buckeyes ran a 4 out 1 in offense, and literally every time DeShaun caught the ball at the free-throw line he turned it into easy buckets. It was a fantastic coaching move to pull Amir and Ravenal who weren't giving them anything inside.

Against Indiana Thad went back to Thomas at center for about 7 minutes when Zeller got into foul trouble. Indianas back-up center is a lumbering dude, who does no more than hand the ball off in the high post, so Thad let DeShaun play the 5. In that span the Buckeyes pulled ahead in the first half and got a lot of momentum going. In both instances (Northwestern and Indiana game) he showed a penchant for understanding match-ups and utilizing a line-up that would be ultra difficult for the opposition to defend. And if you're going to throw a stiff out at center whom Thad would like to see shoot, he has no issue taking an undersized PF who can score anywhere from on the court and playing him at the 5.
 
These statistics highlight how terrible he really is (copied and pasted from another site):

Career winning percentage on or after March 1 including regular season, conference tournament and postseason

.798 Matta (71-18)
.774 Calipari (120-35)
.757 Self (87-28)
.751 R. Williams (136-45)
.739 Pitino (116-41)
.733 Stevens (22-8)
.726 Few (45-17)
.707 Krzyzewski (157-65) -- excludes Army years due to Army media guide not having dates of results
.683 Calhoun (138-64)
.667 Smith (86-43)
.667 Howland (62-31)
.667 Dixon (40-20)
.662 Huggins (88-45)
.657 Izzo (78-38)
.633 Miller (31-18)
.621 Boeheim (136-83)
.618 Donovan (68-42)
.614 Ryan (43-27)
.602 Beilein (56-37)
.588 Kruger (67-47)
.568 Weber (42-32)
.567 Thompson III (38-29)
.567 Barnes (80-62)
.500 B. Williams (14-14)
.493 Gottfried (35-36)
.481 Drew (26-28)
.469 Amaker (30-34)
.468 Crean (29-33)
 
Anyone who cannot see that Matta has improved drastically as a coach this year is just a hater. Champs!
 

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-13: "Backup Bash Brothers"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:11: "Clipping Bucks."
Top