Gene Smith still confident in Thad Matta as head coach

Following the Ohio State Buckeyes season-ending loss to Florida in second round of the NIT, one of Ohio State head coach Thad Matta’s worst seasons at the helm for the Buckeyes came to an end. In a rare season for Ohio State since he has been in charge, the team had a rebuilding year in 2015-16 thanks to several key members of last season’s squad no longer being in Columbus. But, even though the head coach may have struggled, athletic director Gene Smith said that he still has faith in Matta, according to cleveland.com’s Doug Lesmerises.

“Thad has done a marvelous job. He has set the bar, and we met and talked about strategy for the summer and what do we need to do to ensure that these young people take that next jump. It went extremely well. I have all the confidence in the world that he’s going to get the program back to where he and I think it should be.”

With not a single senior receiving playing time, the scarlet and gray were one of the youngest teams in the country. While they struggled this past season, with only one junior (Marc Loving), four sophomores (Jae’Sean Tate, Kam Williams, Trevor Thompson, Keita Bates-Diop), and five freshmen (Mickey Mitchell, Daniel Giddens, David Bell, A.J. Harris, JaQuan Lyle), they are expecting to have every player back next season, having a substantial impact on the near future. Although Matta admitted that he knew it was going to be a tough season, he also recognized that the experience will be important going into next season.

“We knew this was going to be a challenging season, no question about that. I hope our guys have a sense of what college basketball is about now.”

Both Smith and Matta compared the Jon Diebler, Evan Turner, David Lighty, and Dallas Lauderdale group of Buckeyes to the current group. The teams with those players on them were an NIT team in 2008, first-round NCAA Tournament team in 2009, and Sweet Sixteen team in 2010. The key to the 2016 team matching the 2008 team? Development this off-season. They must not only get better, but they must also improve on their weaknesses as well.

While the development if the team is a question that will be answered come next season, one thing is certain: a season like 2015-16 is very rare for Matta and he will likely have them looking much better next season. Concluding his 12th season as Ohio State’s head coach, the 14 losses he had were the most since coming to Columbus and just the third time they have missed the NCAA tournament. With five regular season Big Ten titles, five Sweet Sixteen appearances, and two Final Four bids, Matta’s Buckeyes have a 320-108 record in his tenure.

Even with Matta’s struggles, Smith knows that it was not only a very young team that was rebuilding, but also one that should be back competing for a Big Ten title in 2017.