Thad Matta's hot seat heat check

[Adam]

Hard to believe but Thad Matta might be on his way out at OSU. I would imagine that he needs to have an excellent season this year to keep his job.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thescore.com/news/1300464/amp

 

[hawkeyemark]

Thad I think has had health problems which has likely affected his focus and energy. If Ohio State wants to move in another direction it might benefit all parties and I would hope he can go out gracefully. He certainly deserves that IMO. When that job does open it seems like an attractive opening and if they make a good hire like Indiana did with Miller Fran will have another tough competitor in trying to take Iowa to the top level of the conference.

 

[HawkGold]

Lyle is a tremendous loss for them. Saw him play in HS. Moves with incredible fluidity at a high speed. Will be interesting to see what Diopp will do. Haven't heard if he got a red shirt for last year. Diopp's brother almost died last year as a high school player when his heart stopped. Interesting how things change. Would have thought Motta had the tiger by the tail. Remember when Iowa when the Big Tourney, press in other Big towns thought Iowa was on track to dominate with Alford.

 

[DMLadyhawk]

Hard to believe but Thad Matta might be on his way out at OSU. I would imagine that he needs to have an excellent season this year to keep his job.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thescore.com/news/1300464/amp

This is alarming. I like Matta and have a lot of respect for him. Are there character issues with some of these players, other than Lyle, of course?

 

[hawkdrummer1]

how do you lose all 5 guys in a recruiting class? wow

 

[HawkGold]

My son's 11th and 12th grade years I gog to see a number of Big 10 coaches who were recruiting a player on his team and other teams. A number of them are in the Big now as well as Mo Valley and CUSA.

Motta was different than the others. He sat near to the bench and actively was engaged in the game. After the game he seemed genuinely interested in the player and the parents. It was at a levell way above the others. If he cant activelyy recruit anymore I can see why the fall off.

An Iowa assistant did show up at that particular game and sat in the corner and if I dicnt know who he was and the player's mom didnt tell me I would not have known he was there. After the game the Iowa guy
Crituqued the game play but didnt hsve that salesmanship. He seemed sincere.

The best player I saw though was Lyle. Motta wasnt there bit purdue hc was. Lyle was at a speed of his own. His natural position seemed to be the 3.

 

[morley10]

They can always hire Lickliter. Transition would run smooth since he worked for Motta.

 

[trj]

Matta is gone and where does OSU go from here? If Gene Smith "gently" pushed Matta out it means he has a guy in mind. But who?

 

[tksirius]

Matta is gone and where does OSU go from here? If Gene Smith "gently" pushed Matta out it means he has a guy in mind. But who?

His protégé?

 

[atomicblue224]

His protégé?

 

[atomicblue224]

His protégé?

 

[Tierney]

Matta said he wanted to step down and try and get healthy. He probably will be coaching somewhere else after next year.