Thad Matta was bottled up his hotel room in suburban Chicago back in late January prior to Ohio State's game against Northwestern when he decided he needed to take a walk.
Matta strolled around the streets to try and put his mind at ease before the game against the Wildcats. Playing games night in and night out in the Big Ten can make a coach have some crazy thoughts.
And after walking around a bit, Matta decided to stop in at a local sandwich shop.
"There were two elderly people with Ohio State gear on and I see them and they are looking in the window," Matta recalled Sunday. "Finally they come in and said, ‘Coach Matta, we’re shocked to see you sitting here on game day, can we take a picture with you? This is our Christmas gift to each other, we live in Toledo and came to watch the Buckeyes.’"
Matta was taken back a bit.
"I’m sitting there after they left and I think to myself, ‘I wonder how many guys on this team would understand what that means,’" he said. "It touched me and made me say, ‘Damnit Thad, you’ve got to win for those two people who saved their money and came to watch us play in Chicago."
The Buckeyes won that game against the Wildcats back in January. But in the same way Matta wants to win every game he coaches, he also wants to make sure his players do things the right way on and off the court.
"I think the biggest battle cry they’ve heard from me this year has been playing for one thing and one thing only and that’s Ohio State," Matta said. "Making sure we represent this university every time we take the floor."
The Buckeyes will look to do that Thursday when they take on VCU in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Ohio State is the 10-seed in the West Region; the Rams are the No. 7 seed.
It's the 27th time the Buckeyes have been in the NCAA tournament. They've been to 10 Final Fours, been national runners-up four times and won one national championship. Representing a program with such prestige is important to Matta, despite the fact Ohio State is not having its best season.
The Buckeyes are just 23-10 on the year and finished sixth in the Big Ten with an 11-7 mark. Ohio State lost in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament to Michigan State.
But as the old cliche goes, none of that matters anymore. Every team in the Field of 68 has a chance to advance in the tournament and move toward the Final Four. The beauty of March Madness is that anything can happen on any given night.
"We all feel like we’ve sort of been given new life," Ohio State senior forward Sam Thompson said. "Everybody is 0-0 and it’s a one-game season and we’re excited about it.”
Odds are Ohio State isn't going to win a national championship this season. Should the Buckeyes get past VCU in the second round, they'll likely matchup with No. 2 Arizona and it's hard to see a win there. Stranger things have certainly happened, though, and if Ohio State can get out of the opening weekend, you have to consider that a success based on what this season has been like so far.
Matta may have one of the best players he's ever had at Ohio State in D'Angelo Russell, but this is far from one of Matta's best teams. But that doesn't mean Matta and the Buckeyes aren't going to go down swinging. They know what kind of opportunity playing in the NCAA tournament is.
"It’s a heck of a lot bigger than us and we have something that we have to represent," Matta said. "I think when we do that we play pretty good basketball. So freshman, sophomore, senior, I don’t care what you are, just represent your university.”
