The Greatest Basketball Coach in the World

Old readers of Random Thoughts might remember my recurring column last year, NCAA survivor. In it, I proposed that the national champion could be selected before the tournament from a pool of teams narrowed down over the course of a season. As it turned out, I blew it by missing Florida on my list.

This year, however, if I had picked that column back up, I think we can all agree that I would have had Florida, UCLA, Ohio State, and Georgetown in the pool. It was a perfect season for the NCAA survivor idea. Oh well...

Marge: I cannot believe this! I'm trying to give our daughter a head start in life, and you aren't helping a bit!
Homer: Marge, name one successful person in life who ever lived without air conditioning.
Marge: Balzac!
Homer: No need for potty mouth just because you can't think of one.
Marge: But Balzac-
Homer [interrupting]: "If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts..." Wait, how does the rest of that go?

The other thing you might recall from last season was my intense insistence on the case for Thad Matta as the greatest coach in college basketball. If you also read The Sports Guy you'll know that Bill Simmons has been critical of Thad Matta this season. I'm not exactly clear on what his specific grievances are, but I believe he feels Thad is under-utilizing Greg Oden, or something, and that he's a poor clock manager. Allow me to counter-argue:

1. Thad Matta is a great recruiter. The Freshmen class he has on the Ohio State team might be the greatest foursome ever landed. You've heard of Greg Oden. You now know that Mike Conley Jr. might be even better than Oden. You've caught glimpses of David Lighty's abilities. And Daequan Cook is also a Freshman. What's most amazing is that he recruited these guys last year, while Ohio State was still uncertain whether the NCAA would grant it post-season elligibility after they had been busted for violations under Jim O'Brien.
2. Thad Matta is an unbelievably fantastic motivator, Part 1. In his final season at Xavier, before he got the Ohio State job, Matta took his unranked team into a game against the undefeated, #1 team in the country and won (St. Joseph's). The next season, Matta took his unranked team into a game against the undefeated, #1 team in the country and won (Illinois).
3. Thad Matta is an unbelievably fantastic motivator, Part 2. It's one thing to get players pumped up for big games. It's another to keep them playing hard all season long. At three different schools over the last seven years, Matta has won at least 24 games every season except one, with Ohio State in his first season, when the Buckeyes were on probation and inelligible for the post-season.
4. Thad Matta is an unbelievably fantastic motivator, Part 3. Some anecdotes: Greg Oden wasn't really showing a heck of a lot in this tournament...until with ten minutes remaining in the Memphis game Matta peered down the bench at Oden (sitting with three fouls) and made eye-contact. Oden nodded, and Matta sent him into the game with the instructions: "Play real hard and don't foul anybody." Another good story: Matta gave all his players Final Four pamphlets at the beginning of this season.
   
5. Thad Matta gets the most out of his players. Clearly, Ohio State has some outstanding talent on its team this year, but its not uncommon for a loaded team to have difficulties with chemistry. Matta successfully integrated five new players onto a team that went 26-6 and earned a 2-seed in the tournament last year. He handled the tension between the highly-touted freshmen and the important veterans, like senior Ron Lewis who hit the big three to send the Xavier game into overtime. Plus, he integrated Greg Oden into the mix after the season had already started. And they've only lost three games.
6. Thad Matta is a Good Game Coach. Admittedly, I don't really have a lot to argue here, other than, again, his W-L records have been pretty amazing, and he's playing in the national championship tomorrow. He's 12-5 in the tournament, with a number of upset victories counting in that win total. He was upset last year, yes. That loss was against 7-seed Georgetown, an excellent team in retrospect. Matta avenged that loss yesterday.
   

Who knows? Maybe Simmons is right. Maybe Matta will choke somehow tomorrow night. It still won't change those first five points above, and I'll still believe we're watching the emergence of the next great college basketball coach.