Q: You played collegiately at Taylor University. What kind of player were you?
A: Not a very good one (laughs). I had great experiences at Taylor. I was a guy that knew from the moment I went there that I wanted to be a coach. Really I’ve known I’ve wanted to be a coach since I was 12-years-old. For me, it’s always been a passion of mine to coach. I was fortunate and had a great experience there. The guy I played for and ended up working for there, Paul Patterson, is legendary. He’s been a tremendous mentor. The teams I played on had some great players. We had some NAIA All-Americans and we went to the Final Four when I was a freshman. We won 29 or more games all four years I was in college. My senior year we were ranked No. 1 in the nation heading into the NAIA national tournament. So I was very fortunate to have some phenomenal teammates and coach Patterson being there for me. I can’t say enough about how I feel blessed to go to Taylor and be a part of that family.
Q: What is it about basketball that made it attractive to you even as a young person?
A: First of all I love the game. I loved the game as a player. I loved to watch the game as a young kid. I watched a lot of Big Ten basketball growing up outside of Indianapolis. I remember coming home, eating dinner, and if I got my home work done I’d get to watch some Big Ten basketball. I fell in love with it. As a player, I liked the camaraderie and the fellowship you have with your teammates. As a coach, I like the challenges of molding a team together. The fact that once you can create that synergy among people you can accomplish something you couldn’t accomplish by yourself. It’s a very unique and fun game to coach and play.
Q: How did you get to know coach Matta?
A: Believe it or not the guy who is now the coach at Butler, a guy named Todd Lickliter, he was my high school coach. He left my junior year to be an assistant at Butler, where Thad was a player. And I would go up and visit coach Lickliter at Butler and I watched Thad play when I was in high school at 16- and 17-years-old. Then there was a coaching change after one year, and Todd Lickliter came back to my high school for my senior year. That year Thad would come out and play in our open gyms, or come out and visit coach Lickliter. Coach Lickliter and I were close, so I developed a relationship with Thad as well. Then we just stayed in touch over the years. I’ve always had an amazing respect for how hard he’s worked, how he treats people, and the type of person he is. I’m glad that it came full circle and we got a chance to hook up.
Q: Has it been a no-brainer for you to follow him to each of his new coaching jobs?
A: I played at Taylor and then I coached there for two years. Then I went to N.C. State and had a chance to coach in the ACC which was an unbelievable experience. I was there for four years and when Thad got the job at Butler he asked me to be a part of his staff. Now at that time, when I was an assistant at N.C. State, I was the third assistant and the third assistant could not recruit. There were NCAA restrictions on that position. And so I left to come back to Butler thinking there wasn’t a better place for me to recruit than my own home state. Knowing that Butler was right there in Indianapolis, 35 or 45 minutes from where I grew up. So I started working for Thad. Now, you have to know that Thad really dives into his work and wants to do his best at every task he encounters. But when we were at Butler, I don’t think he really had a plan to leave Butler. He wanted to make it a better place because he was there. And he did that. Then we got the chance to go to Xavier and I don’t think he ever thought about leaving Xavier. He loved it there. His thing was, let’s do the best job we can here with the task we have in front of us. And I think he made Xavier a better place. Now we have this opportunity here and this is a dream come true in a lot of ways for our entire staff. We’re Midwest guys. Thad’s an Illinois guy, I’m from Indiana, Alan (Major) is from Indiana, Brandon Miller is from Indiana, Dave Egelhoff is from Ohio, Dan (Peters) is from Ohio, so I think we’re all guys who have an appreciation for the history and tradition of Ohio State and what it means to be a part of Big Ten basketball. I mean, I pinch myself every day that I come in. It’s like a dream come true.
Q: Did the chance to be in a recruiting position at Butler help you make your decision to leave N.C. State easier?
A: Well, when you have a goal to be a head coach, and it would have to be the right situation because what we have at Ohio State is so special. But I knew, looking forward at my career, that when I left N.C. State I’d be gaining some valuable experience in recruiting. That and the fact that I really knew Thad very well, helped spark my interest.
Q: What did you learn about recruiting in that first job?
A: Recruiting is something you do every day. Some people think, “Is this a recruiting time of year?” But it really is 365 days a year. It’s something you need to wake up thinking about every day. The beauty of it is that each situation in recruiting is different. It involves reading people, connecting with people. The thing I like about Thad and Ohio State when it comes to recruiting, is that Thad works like an assistant coach when it comes to recruiting and I look at that as a positive thing. He is a grinder. He’ll do whatever he has to do from a recruiting standpoint. I’d like to say that all head coaches are like that, but they’re not. So it makes our job as a staff easier when you have a guy like Thad to sell. He is very genuine, people like him, he treats people well, he’s respectful, and people feel those things. Forget him being at Ohio State or being a good Xs and Os guy, he’s just a good person. So that makes my job easier.
Another thing is that when you are talking about the Ohio State University and how reputable this place is academically, how recognized it is worldwide. The tradition that the athletic programs have had here. That’s also a great thing to sell. Sometimes as recruiters you are only as good as your product. And we have a great product, we really do. We’re blessed in that way.
In addition to having a great product and how Thad is as a recruiter, I think another part is that you have to live it every day. It has to be a part of every day, because if you aren’t someone else is. It’s very, very competitive. I think people who follow it recognize that, but people who aren’t as familiar with it don’t understand how competitive recruiting is. The thing we do a good job of is finding kids who are a good fit for Ohio State and who can be successful here and be happy here. Kids that will do well playing for Thad. And I think people feel that. We feel that it’s such a great place and Thad is such a great guy to play for that we shouldn’t have to beg anyone to come. It’s our job to show them how we can help them achieve and attain their goals by using Ohio State as a vehicle. We have to paint that picture very vividly for them.
Q: How do you approach young people as you attempt to establish a relationship with them?
A: I think part of it just comes from my parents. My parents have always cared about other people. Thad is that way. His wife, my wife, they’re that way. That’s the environment we’re around and I think people feel that. I get excited when a kid like a Daequan Cook gets an opportunity to come to a place like Ohio State and continue to grow. I get excited even more when you get to work with them and see the progress they make. We have a plan for each kid. We hold them accountable to that plan to help them reach their goals. . . . A great compliment we received was from one of our players. He said a kid mentioned to one of our recruits that, “the coaches who recruited me are still the same guys who recruited me. They didn’t change.” In other words, we weren’t just giving him a recruiting spiel and then have him come here and be treated differently. And I think that’s important to us. We want to treat our guys right and have them have the best of everything. I think those guys feel that passion we have for their development.
Q: This year’s recruiting class has been called by some to be Ohio State’s best-ever recruiting class. How satisfying was it to be able to get this class together and into your program?
A: Well, you first have to credit the guys who have played here in our first two years here. The first year with all of the negativity surrounding the program, to put together 20 wins, to go .500 in the Big Ten, to beat Illinois, and to accomplish some of the things they accomplished, put us in position for these kids that we recruited in this class. We wanted them to see that this vision they’ve been talking to us about where they wanted to take Ohio State basketball, well, they could really see it happening. Without all that it would have been difficult to sign a class like the ’06 class.
You know, the ’06 class, the unique thing was three of them played together a lot in AAU. Michael (Conley), Greg (Oden), and Daequan (Cook) played together a lot. David (Lighty), from the AAU circuit knew those other three guys very well. All four of them come from winning backgrounds. We take great deal of pride in saying that the four of them, on the same day last year, were playing for the state championship in their respective divisions. That speaks volumes about those kids because we try to recruit kids who are winners. There’s an art to winning. Another thing is that all four kids are great teammates. They’ve already developed a pretty good sense of humility, a sense of work ethic where they understand that things aren’t just going to be given to you, you have to earn it. A lot of people make a big deal about how talented they are, and they are all very talented. But I think most importantly to us was the type of people we were getting. They were winners. They understand the value of doing academic work. To have those qualities in addition to the talent is what made that group so special.
And I will say that in three of the four cases, we were recruiting those guys prior to coming to Ohio State, and spent a lot of time developing relationships. Those four guys, the four freshman, we’ve known their people, the people they were close to, their coaches, back to when they were freshmen in high school. The great thing about the first day of practice this year was it was like four or five years in the works. Thad and I were sitting down last night and saying, “Can you actually believe we’re going to get to coach them in a game?” It’s been like a four- or five-year process. The fruits of our labor as a staff have paid off and we feel very fortunate to have a chance to coach them and watch them grow.
Q: As Ohio State’s recruiting coordinator you’ve received some positive press for your role in reeling this class in. Are you happy you are getting recognition for your efforts.
A: Well, I’m thankful for the recognition. But at the same time I’m not sure how fair it is at times because Thad has a big part in (recruiting success), Ohio State has a big part to do in it, our staff has a big part in it. I mean this is a major deal and a lot of people are involved with these kids, not just me. I appreciate the recognition but I hope people realize it’s a team effort, a collective effort that made it happen.
Q: People outside of the program have placed some pretty high expectations on this team, this year. What are the coaching staff’s expectations?
A: There’s no question that we have talented players. We’d never deny that. But as of today we’re not the team we need to be. It’s a team game. The challenge for us is to mold these talented players into the best team we can become. Because of that we are nowhere near where we need to be. But the ceiling for this team, Lord willing, is high. There’s no doubt about that. But each day that goes by we’ve got to get a little bit better, a little bit better. We have to keep stringing days together to where we have a chance to hopefully reach the maximum potential for this team. So in terms of where we’re at, the rankings and all that stuff, we don’t put a lot of focus on that. I mean, it’s great for the program, it’s great for the Ohio State community and our fans, but as basketball coaches we know that just being talented isn’t enough to win games. You have to play team defense and team offense and play as a group in order to reach your maximum potential. That’s what we’re striving for. We’re not there yet, but I can promise you we’re working hard every day to get there.