Bucks’ Matta familiar with IU coach’s woes

He went through similar problems when he became coach at Ohio State.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Thad Matta has enough to handle just staying on top of all the challenges facing his own Ohio State team.

Yet at the same time, he looks at the troubled Indiana program and recognizes that he’s been down a road similar to the one Tom Crean is following these days at Indiana.

When the two teams meet on Tuesday night at Value City Arena, it may take a while for the coaches to compare notes at midcourt. They’ve got a lot to talk about. Each has had to deal with maddening problems caused by his predecessor.

“There was no light at the end of the tunnel,” Matta said Monday of the situation he was presented during his first season at Ohio State, in 2004-5.

Matta left Xavier and inherited a Buckeyes program in total disarray. The NCAA was looking into whether players had received improper inducements from Jim O’Brien, who had been fired a month before Matta was hired in July of 2004.

While the investigation dragged on, the games began. Matta and the Buckeyes soldiered on even while the threat of sanctions hung over them on a daily basis. Rumors were rampant.

One of the darkest days came on Dec. 9, when Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger announced that the school would not accept a postseason bid even if it received one. The pre-emptive strike by Geiger was intended to mitigate NCAA penalties.

“I’ll never forget the day I announced to the team that they couldn’t go to postseason play,” Matta said. “[Forward] Matt Sylvester’s sitting in the front row, and he goes, ’Yeah, this should be fun. No pressure.”’

Also, nothing to play for.

But Geiger’s decision, in consultation with Ohio State President Karen Holbrook, also caused untold problems for a coach and team which was 5-2 at the time and would finish a respectable 20-12. It all but gutted the team of goals.

“We were really playing for pride. [The players] could have cashed it in on us and they didn’t do that,” Matta said. “They finished strong.”

Indiana hopes it can say the same thing. The program accepted three years of probation in November in the wake of a humiliating telephone recruiting scandal during the rocky tenure of Kelvin Sampson, who was fired after last season.

Most of the scholarship players left or were kicked off the already talent-strapped team. The school also agreed to give up a scholarship.

That has left Crean, who left Marquette to take over the mammoth reconstruction of a once-proud program, with few weapons in a conference that appears to be deep and stocked with talent.

The Hoosiers (5-10, 0-3) have struggled. Now leading-scorer Devan Dumes may not be available because of a sprained left ankle.

Crean sounded Monday as if he were overwhelmed by what’s ahead.

“The people who have left and all the things that you inherit, you know it’s going to be a challenge, but until you go through it, you have no idea,” he said. “There’s really nothing that any of us as coaches have been a part of that prepares you for it.”

But there is still reason to hope.

The fortunes of Matta and Ohio State changed dramatically. In Matta’s second year, the Buckeyes won the Big Ten title and went 26-6. A year later, led by a historic recruiting class that included three players taken in the first round of the draft as freshmen — Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook — Ohio State went 35-4, won the conference title again and then went all the way to the national championship game.

After winning 24 games and the National Invitation Tournament last season, the Buckeyes (11-3, 1-2) have had to replace another freshman who jumped to the pros (Kosta Koufos). Yet they remain extremely competitive.

“We were fortunate some [recruits] took some chances on us,” Matta said. “It has the potential there if you get the right type of kids that you can turn it pretty quick.”

That’s the blueprint Crean is following.

“Everybody inside our program as far as coaches and fans and administration, I think everybody knew it was going to be a tough road — and it certainly is,” Crean said. “But at the same time, for the most part, we feel like we’re making progress.”