Despite a recent group of transfers and Ohio State missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in eight seasons, athletic director Gene Smith said Tuesday he was not concerned about the current state of the men's basketball program.
“I have total confidence that we’re going to be back where we were,” Smith said while speaking briefly to a few reporters at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
The Buckeyes, led by head coach Thad Matta, were 21-14 this past season and finished in seventh place in the Big Ten. It was the third-consecutive season which many feel the program underachieved and it has some believing Ohio State may be trending in the wrong direction.
Smith, though, said he and Matta spoke after the season and both are on the same page in the attempt to help get the program back to where it was just a few short seasons ago.
“We had a conversation, about a 90-minute conversation Monday after the last game where we sat down and talked about the state of the program, talked about the transfers and reiterated how we would handle that,” Smith said. “People forget that we have a great core of kids coming back and that’s where people need to focus on.”
Ohio State is expected to return its top-six scorers next season — in addition to 83 percent of its rebounds and 79 percent of its assists — but many were concerned after Daniel Giddens, Mickey Mitchell and A.J. Harris all opted to transfer from the program last week after just one season. Fellow freshman Austin Grandstaff transferred back in December which means only JaQuan Lyle remains from the Buckeyes’ once highly-touted 2015 five-man recruiting class.
But Smith said both he and Matta were aware those transfers were coming and that they are a sign of the way things are right now in college basketball.
“We weren’t surprised,” Smith said. “Thad and I had talked about this as we led up to it and all you need to do is look at the national statistics and 40 percent of Division I basketball players, before their sophomore year, transfer.
“We weren’t surprised and we understood that they were leaving.”
Much of Smith’s confidence in Matta stems from the success he has had in Columbus over his 12 seasons leading the program. Matta has 320 wins at Ohio State — the most in school history — and has a winning percentage of .748. He has won five Big Ten championships and four Big Ten tournament titles while making a pair of Final Fours.
Smith feels optimistic Matta will get things back to that level.
“I’m not at all concerned,” Smith said.
