RE: Matta go bye-bye

[B M]

Matta accepts head coaching position at Ohio State 

By RUSTY MILLER
The Associated Press
7/7/04 8:17 PM 

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A week after declaring he had no interest in becoming basketball coach at Ohio State, Xavier's Thad Matta accepted the position on Wednesday. 
Ohio State sports information director Steve Snapp said the school would hold a news conference Friday to formally introduce Matta. 
"We have extended an offer, he's accepted it and we're excited about it," Snapp said. 
Xavier athletic director Dawn Rogers confirmed Matta's hiring in an e-mail to The Associated Press shortly after she received a call from him early Wednesday evening. 
"I always had the uneasy feeling that Thad might be the next Ohio State coach," Rogers said at a news conference Wednesday night. "Ultimately he did what he needed to do to be where he wanted to be as a coach." 
Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger did not return telephone messages seeking comment left at his office, home and cell phones. 
Matta, who will turn 37 on Sunday, interviewed with Geiger, members of the search committee and Ohio State president Karen Holbrook on Wednesday morning. 
He was offered the job soon after the search committee met for 45 minutes at Ohio Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. 
Matta, who took Xavier to the NCAA tournament's regional finals in March, was one of three coaches interviewed on campus this week. The others were Rice's Willis Wilson and Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings. Interim head coach Rick Boyages was to be interviewed on Wednesday but apparently did not meet with the search committee. 
The search committee -- never formally identified by Geiger -- was composed primarily of former Ohio State players such as Bill Hosket, Rick Smith and Clark Kellogg and current team captain Terence Dials. 
Ohio State fired Jim O'Brien after seven years on June 8, six weeks after he admitted to Geiger that he had paid a recruit $6,000 in 1999. NCAA and Ohio State investigators also are looking into allegations by a Columbus woman that she gave thousands of dollars to former Buckeyes player Boban Savovic and paid his bills and did his homework for two years. 
Matta had a 78-23 record in three years with the Musketeers. He was 24-8 in his only season as head coach at his alma mater, Butler. 
Matta served as an assistant at Indiana State, Butler, Miami of Ohio and Western Carolina. 
Matta was thought to be one of the favorites for the Buckeyes job -- which pays around $1.2 million a year -- from the beginning. Ohio State asked Rogers for permission to talk to Matta two weeks ago. 
Asked then whether he was interested in the job, he denied it. 
"I'm not a candidate. It's that plain and that simple," Matta told The Cincinnati Enquirer on June 29. 
He has ignored other job openings, saying he could not fathom leaving Xavier. 
"I'm not a very public person, so nobody's ever going to know how happy I am at Xavier," Matta said last week. "Our players have three (Atlantic 10 championship) rings in three years. We've been to the round of 32, round of 32 and Elite Eight. I'm sitting here and I probably have one of the longest contracts in the country. I love that." 
Matta's contract at Xavier ran through the 2012-13 season. 
The top candidate to replace Matta is associate head coach Sean Miller, a former guard at Pittsburgh. Miller has been an assistant under Matta the last three years at Xavier and before that was an assistant for five years at North Carolina State. 
Rogers said she would move quickly to find Xavier's next coach. 
"I am confident we will secure a national caliber coach who supports the mission of our university," she said. 

B M <address@hidden> wrote:
"I'm not a candidate," Matta said Tuesday. "It's that plain and that simple." 

B M wrote:Why did they keep this under wraps while openly flirting with other coaches ?

They brought Wilson & Stallings to their campus for what ??

It should be easy to recruit against Matta. Just show how his words dont mean anything ! 

LOL

"Edwards, Steven B. (LNG-DAY)" wrote:
Columbus media reporting the same thing. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Alverson, Tom [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 5:24 PM
To: 'address@hidden'
Subject: [UC Basketball] Matta go bye-bye

http://www.channelcincinnati.com/sports/3503504/detail.html

If you can believe the media:

"Xavier coach Thad Matta has accepted Ohio State's offer to coach the men's
basketball team, a source told Columbus TV station WCMH."


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