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Men's Basketball
Jeff’s Weekly Sports Rapp: Constantly Redeeming Himself
By Jeff Rapp

(Editor’s Note: Jeff Rapp has covered Ohio State athletics since he graduated from the university more than 20 years ago. He currently serves as a voting member of the Heisman Trophy Trust and is a longstanding member of the Football Writers Association of America and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association).

There are actual moments in the midst of Ohio State’s struggles where I am humored, moments where the basketball team’s many critics reach a crescendo.

“Ohio State can’t shoot.”

“They have no post game.”

“Thompson is a great dunker but that’s all he can do.”

“Craft needs to shoot more.”

“Deshaun is a gun.”

“They have no bench.”

And on and on it goes.

Thad Matta
Photo by Jim Davidson

Whenever the Buckeyes lose, the blunt analysis blares as if the head coach is too dense to realize Ohio State’s weaknesses and too clueless to address them.

Maybe they forget that coach is Thad Matta, who has won at least part of the last three Big Ten titles, taken five league crowns in eight years, guided the Buckeyes to the Final Four last year, led OSU to a 34-3 mark and top national ranking the year prior, and is now 234-69 since becoming Ohio State’s coach in 2004.

Maybe my favorite Matta stat: He is in his 13th year as a head coach – he started at his alma mater, Butler, for one year and then served three at Xavier – and it took him until Saturday in East Lansing to lose 100 times.

Ohio State’s 56-53 upset of No. 2 Michigan last Sunday improved Matta’s all-time record to 335-99.

Even after the loss at No. 18 Michigan State over the weekend, Matta is still a robust 116-47 against the Big Ten as OSU coach, including a mark of 17-3 vs. Michigan and a 61-10 showing at home.

Too bad he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

The latest victory over those hated Wolverines, which came before a sellout crowd of 18,809 and a national television audience (CBS), improved Ohio State to 13-3 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten while knocking off the nation’s lone remaining undefeated team.

Michigan slipped to No. 5 in The Associated Press poll that was released a week ago on Monday; Ohio State jumped four spots to No. 11.

The last time Ohio State defeated a team as highly-ranked as Michigan at the Schottenstein Center was Feb. 25, 2007 vs. No. 2 Wisconsin, a title-clinching 49-48 win.

This one may not carry as much weight in the long run. After all, the conference is as loaded as ever right now, something we were quickly reminded of on Saturday at the Breslin Center. For the Buckeyes to stay in the race all the way through they are going to have to win some rather huge games on the road.

Thad Matta
Photo by Jim Davidson

But Matta just may figure out a way to do that, too. He’ll squeeze everything he can out of this team, warts and all, and his Buckeyes will be dangerous in March no matter the result.

How do I know? Because that’s what Thad Matta does.

Sure, he can be stubborn. All coaches are to a point. But Matta is more adaptable than for which he’s given credit.

Last season, even I was critical of his elfin-short bench and the Buckeyes got to New Orleans – and within a three-ball of advancing to the national championship game. While everyone else was ready to give up on senior guard William Buford, Matta’s belief never wavered – and Buford was outstanding in the win at Michigan State that earned OSU a piece of the title and the Final Four matchup with Kansas. Matta also taught his team the importance of dumping the ball inside to Jared Sullinger and the value of inside-out play.

The year before that, he fielded one of the most dynamic teams in Big Ten history – and his insistence in keeping Jon Diebler on the floor throughout his career paid off in the form of Diebler becoming the Big Ten’s all-time leading three-point shooter. When others thought he should pull Dallas Lauderdale from the starting lineup, Matta stuck with what worked.

The year before that, he gave Evan Turner the keys to the car and enabled the 6-7 swingman to sweep every conceivable award for National Player of the Year. The Buckeyes functioned off of a drive-and-kick approach and Matta begged production out of former Division II guards P.J. Hill and Jeremie Simmons.

And on and on it goes.

Still, it was all set up for Matta to be the whipping boy again with mighty Michigan coming to town and sophomore point guard Trey Burke – a Columbus product who was never offered a scholarship by Ohio State – being hailed as an All-American candidate.

Burke even did his part by splashing a three on Michigan’s first possession.

Poor Thad – in over his head, without answers and about to be tortured by a local boy.

Only the Buckeyes looked as focused and prepared as they have all season and responded with an absolutely dominant 26-3 spree and opened up a 20-point lead.

When the Wolverines began to peck away at the deficit and the Buckeyes struggled with their halfcourt offense, the mumbling returned.

“They’re going to blow it.”

“Why won’t he put Ross in?”

“This team can’t beat a good team without Jared.”

And on and on it goes.

However, Matta, who loves to allow his teams a free-flowing offense and encourages those who are open to shoot, knew the path to victory was on the defensive end.

That’s just about all he could talk about during interviews last Friday and that’s what he and his players preferred to stress afterward.

“I thought the way we started the game was as good defensively as we’ve played all year,” he said.

When asked how his team was able to hold on after UM came all the way back to tie the score, he added, “Defensively we got the stops when we needed them. We challenged shots and some guys had some big rebounds down the stretch for us.”

The Buckeyes held Michigan to a season-low 53 points, 28 below its average, and UM also was stifled to the tune of 22 first-half points, 18 made field goals and a shooting percentage of 38.3, also season lows.

Deshaun Thomas, who likes to fire shots and score the ball about as much as he does eating and breathing, was beaming after the game talking about defense. Defense!

Thomas was the only Buckeye in double figures with 20 points but there were many heroes.

Sam Thompson not only threw down a couple more nasty dunks, he logged nine points, four rebounds and two steals and was instrumental to the hot start.

Center Amir Williams was active early and had six points and four rebounds in just 11 minutes. Lenzelle Smith Jr. struggled to score but ripped 10 rebounds for the second straight game, some of them monstrous in importance, and he also had two very important free throws in the final seconds.

Evan Ravenel again was more than solid off the bench and played textbook help defense.

And then there was Aaron Craft, who no doubt was fueled by all the Burke talk and once again outmoded the youngster. Craft had nine points, three rebounds, four assists and harassed Burke into a 4-for-13, four-turnover outing.

“He had a unique way about him today,” Matta said. “I didn’t say a lot to him. I knew that he was going to be ready to play at the level we needed him to.”

This is the blueprint for this team, and Matta knows it. The Buckeyes couldn’t quite keep up with Duke’s firepower and Kansas’ size and experience. And their first road test in the conference was a dud as they were overwhelmed at Illinois. But giving up on this team means giving up on Matta, and that’s a major no-no, especially now that he’s gotten his players to see exactly how they need to cut down top teams.

“Unequivocally this was a team win – and we have to win that way,” he said with a raspy postgame voice. “Make no mistake about it, guys can’t take possessions off defensively, guys can’t not be tuned in.”

Matta will teach it, stress it and make his Buckeyes drink it in. He’ll knock off more highly ranked teams and probably steal a few on the road. The wins will pile up, the NCAA outlook will brighten.

Will it continue against Iowa on Tuesday – after all, the Hawkeyes just handed Wisconsin it’s first Big Ten loss of the season? Hard to say. But if it doesn’t it will be easy to find Matta – he’ll be back in the moron chamber.

And on and on it goes.

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