Jim O'Brien left Ohio State with a roster full of talent, but with a cloud hanging over Columbus.
O'Brien was fired in June of 2004 after admitting that he paid the mother of one-time recruit Aleksandar Radojević. He left Ohio State was a capable roster, but a one-year suspension from postseason play.
Thad Matta's first Buckeye team in 2004-05 gave Ohio State fans something to cheer about, winning 20 games, culminating with one of the most memorable wins in school history, a 65-64 victory over No. 1 Illinois at home in the season finale.
That team, which featured the likes of Matt Sylvester, Terence Dials, Je'Kel Foster and Brandon Fuss-Cheatham, deserves a banner for their accomplishments in that season, according to Matta.
"Brandon and Tony (Stockman) and JJ (Sullinger), Terence, Je'Kel and Matt Sylvester: They should hang their names from the top of the rafters," Matta said during his speech to the Agonis Club on Monday. "Because what they did for Ohio State basketball is something that – they put a stamp on it. That game was a huge start for us."
There is no denying that the 2004-05 team helped set the standard for what Matta's tenure at Ohio State would become. The Buckeyes would win 20 or more games in 12 of Matta's 13 seasons, appearing in two Final Fours and nine NCAA Tournaments overall.
However, if Matta's first team at Ohio State deserves a banner, then Chris Holtmann's first team deserves to be right up there next to them for what it accomplished 13 years later.
Much like O'Brien, Matta didn't leave the cupboard bare when he left Columbus, although many believed the roster wasn't capable of winning right away. Matta, though, knew what Ohio State was capable of, and he told Holtmann so before the season started.
"When he and I talked about the job, I told him it is a tremendous opportunity because you are going to have a heck of a basketball team this year and no one knows it," Matta said.
As it turned out, he was right.
Holtmann's first team, made up largely of Matta recruits, went on to finish 25-9, 15-3 in 2017-18, making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015 and finishing second in the Big Ten in a year that they were picked to finish outside the top-10.
Much like the 2005 team, the Buckeyes rattled off signature wins to re-engage a fan base that had become skeptical of whether or not Ohio State could return to national prominence. The Buckeyes defeated a pair of top-three teams in a span of two months, defeating No. 1 Michigan State at home and No. 3 Purdue on the road. The win over the Spartans was the first such win over a top-ranked team since Sylvester's squad did it in 2005.
It remains to be seen whether or not Holtmann can sustain the amount of success that Matta did, but the 2017-18 team has sped up the process of returning to the top of college basketball.
The immediate success has played a significant role in recruiting, as Ohio State has already landed the No. 1 recruit in the state for the 2019 class in Alonzo Gaffney. The Buckeyes are also in contention for multiple high-level recruits, as the 2019 class is shaping up to be an elite one.
Much like the 2004-05 team set the bar for what Ohio State could be when it defeated Illinois, the 2017-18 team once again proved that the Buckeyes can do something special on the hardwood when the right group of people are running the program.
It seems more clear now than ever that Matta and Holtmann, along with their respective first teams at OSU, deserve perhaps even more recognition than they already receive.
