After a 17-15 season capped by a listless loss to lowly Rutgers in the B1G tournament, Ohio State's hoops season was mercifully euthanized as neither the NCAA or NIT tournaments saw the Buckeyes worthy of inclusion.
Missing the 2017 Dance came on the heels of failing to qualify for the 2016 edition and combined with the 2007-08 season in which the Buckeyes ended up cutting down the NIT nets, and the 2004-05 season that saw Ohio State go 20-12 in Thad's first year before self-imposed sanctions from the Jim O'Brien era kept the team out of any postseason action, Matta's program has stayed home to watch the NCAA tourney four times in 13 seasons.
Obviously, Matta gets a pass for that 2004-05 miss. How many times Ohio State missed the Dance under Matta is not the topic here anyway. Instead, considering Gene Smith confirmed Matta will be back next year, I wanted to look at how Matta's teams have fared the season after failing to make the NCAA tournament in search of any useful perspective.
2005-06 SEASON
The 2005-06 season was a bit of an odd circumstance for the purposes of this writing as it followed up the 2004-05 squad that did manage to post a 20-12 record including an 8-8 mark in Big Ten action, good for 6th place overall, but due to self-imposed sanctions following the Jim O'Brien era, the 2005-06 team wasn't eligible for any postseason play.
Optimism rained down on the 2005-06 team, Matta's second in Columbus, thanks to his first squad racking up those 20 wins including one over top-ranked Illinois in early March and a bevy of returning players including Terence Dials, Je'Kel Foster, Jamar Butler, J.J. Sullinger, Ivan Harris, Matt Terwilliger and Matt Sylvester.
Also of note, Ron Lewis was now able to play after sitting out a year upon transferring from Bowling Green.
A balanced attack in which four guys averaged double figures was led by Dials who averaged 15.3 points and 8.0 rebounds per game en route to B1G Player of the Year honors. Something missing from Thad's recent teams, Dials emerged as that go-to guy just about every legit team needs.
Sullinger also played his role nicely with 10.1 points and 7.0 boards per game while Foster was a beast defensively who also could hit the three (12.2 ppg). His all-around game earned 2nd-team All-B1G and Butler made 3rd team All-B1G.
A gritty, balanced team, the Buckeyes cruised through the B1G regular season with a 12-4 mark, winning the league outright. Matta's crew also reached the B1G tournament final before falling to Iowa.
The season's resume earned a No. 2 seed in the Big Dance.
In what should have been a sign of bad news to come, the Buckeyes beat 15-seed Davidson in the opening round but only by a score of 70-62, setting up a second round matchup with 7-seed Georgetown.
Blessed with tremendous size, the Hoyas worked the Buckeyes, 70-52, cutting short what was still a hell of a season. Roy Hibbert owned the paint with 20 points and 14 boards while Jeff Greene tossed in 19 points. Only four Hoyas scored but with Hibbert and Greene doing work and Georgetown owning the glass, 37-24, a trip to the Sweet Sixteen was not to be for Matta's squad.
Still, Thad earned B1G Coach of the Year honors and the great season helped ease the sting of the NCAA dictating Ohio State erase all records from 1998-99 through 2001-02 as punishment for Jim O'Brien's misdeeds.
2008-09 SEASON
The scenario surrounding the 2008-09 season stood in sharp contrast to the 2005-06 season as far as coming off a non-NCAA tournament campaign.
The season prior, 2007-08, saw the Buckeyes relegated to the NIT where they went all the way to New York City and captured the crown. Butler carried the load (15.0 ppg, 5.9 apg) along with freshman Kosta Koufos who claimed tournament MVP honors as part of a 14.9 ppg, 6.7 rpg season that saw him (and his family) debate with Matta exactly how he should be deployed in Thad's offense.
The team went 24-13 overall and 10-8 in B1G play to finish 5th.
Entering the 2008-09 season, Matta needed to find four new starters as Butler, Koufos and Othello Hunter were history and things got worse when David Lighty broke his foot early in the season.
Forced to break in those four new starters alongside a blossoming Evan Turner, the Buckeyes were humbled just after Christmas in a 76-48 home loss to West Virginia and went 4-7 against ranked teams.
Turner did everything for the Buckeyes. He led the B1G in scoring at 17.3 points per game, logged 7.1 boards and 4.0 assists on the way to 1st-team All-B1G honors. William Buford picked up B1G Freshman of the Year while Jon Diebler was honorable mention (11.2).
B.J. Mullens (yes, he was still B.J. then) didn't quite do as much as expected but managed 8.8 points and 4.7 boards while the Buckeyes sorely lacked a point guard as Jeremie Simmons and P.J. Hill were typically overmatched at the critical spot.
The Buckeyes did reach the B1G tournament final before falling to Purdue, leading to an 8-seed in the NCAA tourney. Unfortunately, Ohio State blew an 11-point 2nd half lead before falling to 9-seed Siena in double overtime to finish the season at 22-11 overall and 10-8 in league action, good for a 4th place tie.
2016-17 SEASON
Failing to make the NCAA tournament as part of a 2015-16 campaign that saw the Buckeyes go 21-14 overall and 11-7 in B1G play before bowing out in the 2nd round of the NIT, the general belief was 2016-17 would the season Matta got his program back in the thick of the B1G race and by extension back into the NCAA tournament.
Freshman Austin Grandstaff transferred early in the 2015-16 campaign and right after the season ended fellow recruiting class members Mickey Mitchell, A.J. Harris and Daniel Giddens followed suit.
Interestingly, Matta took the low road for probably the first time in his career, going out of his way to say the transfers were essentially addition by subtraction and would allow him to get back to coaching players that wanted to be at Ohio State and went about their business in the proper fashion.
Though a bit startling to lose an entire class after one season, many were hopeful heading into the 2016-17 season because Matta returned his top six contributors from the previous season in JaQuan Lyle, Keita Bates-Diop, Jae'Sean Tate, Marc Loving, Trevor Thompson and Kam Williams.
A funny thing happened on the way back to respectability however as Bates-Diop played just nine games before season-ending surgery while the healthy guys struggled to consistently and collectively deliver the effort, basketball IQ and talent necessary to keep from being anything other than the most frustrating team of Matta's OSU tenure.
Losing to Florida Atlantic, hanging with Virginia but coming up short and not getting blown out by UCLA highlighted the non-conference before the group started 0-4 in B1G action.
To their credit, the squad didn't throw in the towel after the rough start, winning three of the next four. In late February they would avenge an 89-66 blowout loss to Wisconsin with a 10-point home win over the now-Sweet Sixteen bound Badgers and a 4-point win over Michigan in Ann Arbor also served as a season highlight.
Unfortunately, the squad bottomed out over its final two games allowing 96 points to Indiana (most ever scored against OSU in the Schott) before falling to lowly Rutgers in a lackluster effort to kick off the B1G tournament.
At 17-15 overall and 7-11 in league play, that resume wasn't enough to attract any postseason tournament action.
2017-18 SEASON
Next fall, Matta will begin another effort to rebuild his program after missing the NCAA tournament.
He'll do so knowing he returns seven of his top nine rotational guys from last year, with Loving and Thompson no longer in the fold. The return of Bates-Diop could also prove huge to a team void of a go-to scoring option in addition to adding a guy who can create his own shot and help slow down an opponent's best wing player.
Matta also welcomes incoming freshman sensation Kaleb Wesson (along with point guard Braxton Beverly). Wesson, a 6'9" pivot player, could give Matta an immediate boost especially with Thompson's decision to move on.
Beyond individual talents that must be improved over the summer, Matta must also consider what else can be done to address his ailing program. Without any roster flexibility, Matta may choose to modify the look of his staff. Tim covered a few options recently including shaking up the coaching staff with Greg Paulus and his under-performing units over the last two seasons as the most likely target.
One thing seems certain, even though Gene Smith offered support to Matta via a statement before the Rutgers debacle, this is a program in flux that needs to step it up before performance, attendance and interest in Ohio State basketball depletes any further.
