Ohio State's Thad Matta Retires

[Joneslab]

Pretty drastic fall for a guy who looked at one time like he was primed to become a star in the coaching ranks.

http://ohiostate.247sports.com/Article/Ohio-State-Buckeyes-basketball-coach-Thad-Matta-to-retire-after--53035954

[Dwight Schrute]

Seems like maybe he just lost his fire after the Jared Sullinger teams. But yeah, I wanted him as our coach after Tubby left.

[lilproUK98]

What's he been up to the last 5 years???

[KevinHall]

I suspect his back problems contributed to his downfall. When you are in pain its hard to go about business as usual. Ohio State will probably be on a complete rebuild after this season. It will be interesting who they go after too. That's a good job as long you don't mind being number two behind football.

[Blue Heaven]

We lost to them two seasons ago. It was just a head scratching loss

[Catsrock]

I won't miss him. Don't recall any other prospective coaching candidate ever being quite so insulting when giving his reason for not being interested. Don't remember his exact wording but basically said he wouldn't be caught dead among us backwoods rednecks. Luckily much better coaches don't view our state the same way.

[Joneslab]

Ohio State has actually announced that Matta is finished effective immediately.

[UK8STL11]

Ohio State has actually announced that Matta is finished effective immediately.

That's a pretty big surprise...wonder what the heck happened?

[UK8STL11]

On another note regarding Matta- he's only 49 years old?!?!?!

Holy crap, I would have guessed he was at least 60.

[DA#23]

^ Same here. I'm guessing he has something going on health-wise...hope I'm wrong!

[George]

Might've caught whatever afflicted old-face Greg Oden.

[lilproUK98]

^ Same here. I'm guessing he has something going on health-wise...hope I'm wrong!

He's had back issues.

[George]

Insider says OSU wish list includes:
Brad Stevens, Tony Bennett, Jay Wright, Sean Miller & Billy Donovan.

— Clay Hall (@claywsyx6) June 5, 2017

I bet it does.

Not a single name on that list is realistic. In the end, my money's on Chris Mack.

[KevinHall]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Insider says OSU wish list includes:<br>Brad Stevens, Tony Bennett, Jay Wright, Sean Miller &amp; Billy Donovan.</p>&mdash; Clay Hall (@claywsyx6) <a href="https://twitter.com/claywsyx6/status/871796308025241600">June 5, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I bet it does.

Not a single name on that list is realistic. In the end, my money's on Chris Mack.

Some of those would be on UK's wish list too. I can't see anyone prominent taking the job this late in the game. Ohio State should have made the change when the season was over. Really a weird descion at this point.

[George]

Some of those would be on UK's wish list too. I can't see anyone prominent taking the job this late in the game. Ohio State should have made the change when the season was over. Really a weird descion at this point.

Agreed - difference being, I think we'd have a better shot with a couple.

Stevens? Unlikely, though I guess it isn't impossible for fortunes to fade.
Wright? That ship's probably sailed, though I'd be irked if we didn't at least make an offer.
Bennett and Miller both make sense, though Bennett's style might make you think twice, and Miller's tourney success, though not entirely out of the norm, would still worry me just a little.
Donovan's the wild card. He isn't getting any younger and he's doing fine in the pros, but I still think Kentucky would be attractive to him. I think it always was, and I don't think that's changed.