Matta enjoys his 'greatest day' as OSU's new basketball coach

Terrence Dials of Boardman said Bobby Knight was never a serious candidate.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- This time, Thad Matta came into Value City Arena through the front door.
Two days after sneaking in a rear door near a dock to avoid reporters before he interviewed for the job, the former Xavier coach was introduced Friday as Ohio State's 13th head basketball coach.
"There are times in your life when you know something's right," Matta said at a news conference in the Buckeyes' practice gym. "This is the greatest day of my life."
As if to back up that contention, he pulled a buckeye from his pocket and smiled as he held it up before several dozen reporters, university trustees, Matta's parents, wife and two daughters and members of the search committee.
Faces big challenge
He takes over a team shaken by the sudden firing of coach Jim O'Brien for giving money to a recruit.
The program is also under investigation by the NCAA for allegations of improper payments, contact with agents and academic fraud by players.
"You are a new Buckeye," Ohio State President Karen Holbrook said, telling him for the first time that the university's board of trustees had approved his coaching contract.
She challenged Matta to improve the team, saying the university has not had a national championship basketball team in 44 years -- longer than Matta, who will turn 37 on Sunday, has been alive.
Matta accepted the challenge.
"I'm fully aware of the state this program's in," he said. "I took this job for one reason and one reason only, to bring Ohio State basketball back to national prominence."
Last season
Ohio State went 14-16 a year ago and finished ninth in the Big Ten with a 6-10 record, missing the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.
Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger said that O'Brien told him on April 24 that he had given $6,000 to recruit Aleksandar Radojevic in 1999. Six weeks later, Geiger dismissed O'Brien, touching off a nationwide search.
Geiger defended his decision to not fire O'Brien immediately when he learned of the payment, saying, "We were not in a race."
Matta's hiring came 31 days after O'Brien was fired.
Joining Matta as finalists for the job were Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings -- who was beaten out by O'Brien the last time the job was available in 1997 -- along with Rice coach Willis Wilson. Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Jim Cleamons, a former Ohio State standout, also interviewed, as did Penn coach Fran Dunphy.
Geiger received permission to talk to Matta more than two weeks ago. Matta told a reporter last week that he had no interest in the job. He returned to Columbus Wednesday morning to meet with the informal search committee, Geiger and Holbrook, and was offered the job early that evening.
Matta apologized to Xavier for the perception that he had been less than forthcoming with university officials as he discussed taking his third head coaching job in five years.
He met with his new Buckeyes players earlier in the day, saying that "the Ohio State way" would be followed from now on.
"This program is going to be built on trust, hard work, dedication and commitment," Matta said. "Those conditions will always be unconditional."
Matta promised a "fun, exciting" style of basketball, something that appealed to the Buckeyes.
Dials' view
"He came in with the energy that he displays on the court," said Ohio State captain Terence Dials, the Boardman High graduate who was also a member of the search committee. "He let us know his desire that he wanted to be here at Ohio State and that this was one of the greatest jobs in America. Once that was all clear, it was pretty much said that we all wanted him to be our coach."
Dials said that Ohio State alum Bob Knight, the legendary Texas Tech coach nearing the all-time record for Division I victories, was never a serious candidate. Many thought Knight, who played on Ohio State's national championship team in 1960, was the early front-runner. Geiger and the search committee did not.
"His name was brought up in one of the first meetings -- and it was quickly dropped," Dials said. "I let Andy Geiger handle all that because that was his doing. He wasn't even a prospect, really."