Matta Out At Ohio State

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Just cant see Chris Mack going for that job. Its not an elite job.

You never know for sure what a head coach candidate will do until he does it.

Matta gets job after Wednesday interview - ESPN - July 8, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The search lasted 29 days. Thad Matta's turnaround took a week.

Seven days after declaring he had no interest in leaving Xavier for the vacant Ohio State basketball coaching job, Matta accepted the position on Wednesday.

The Nation's Top 10 Coaching Jobs - Eamonn Brennan, ESPN - June 7, 2012

8. Ohio State Buckeyes

[Savannah Jay]

Or he could stay at X and become what Jay Wright has a Nova. He seems well on his way to the latter in fact.

And the two things both X and Nova (and rest of BE) have in common is "no football." For all of Matta's success, he was the nice guy they put in a corner to take care of a program that they kinda care about in the winter. He made elite money, no doubt, but football is king in Columbus. I don't know much about Mack personally but he's the king in Cincy. He (and Holtmann, or anyone else) will not be the king in Columbus.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Just cant see Chris Mack going for that job. Its not an elite job. He could stay at X for a few more years, see more elite-8s and be a prime candidate for Duke, UNC, Kentucky. Or he could stay at X and become what Jay Wright has a Nova. He seems well on his way to the latter in fact. The Ohio St job would be almost a lateral move at this point.

I'm certainly not trying to speculate that Mack might be interested but I'm not sure it's as easy as just saying: "I'll get to the FF this year, and then wait for a blue blood to come calling." First of all "getting to a E8 and especially FF" is not easy. Just ask Sean Miller. Also when you look at UNC, they normally keep their hires in-house among the UNC family. Not sure the UNC fraternity elite (Jordan, Larry Brown, etc.) would support anyone that didn't have the UNC connection or someone they knew personally. UK? Where's Cal going? Duke? Don't think for a second that when Coach K does step down, he will basically hand pick his successor. Like UNC he's going to stay in the family IMO. If Wojo starts to have more success, he'd be far more likely to land at Duke than Mack IMO.

So, I'm not sure where the "hold out for a better job" strategy would work--especially when considering he is an OH boy. It's his home state, the B1G IS a big time sports and BB conference and OSU has a huge budget. If he's going to jump, this is exactly the type of job that would make the most sense.

Now I do agree that 1). X should pony up so more cash to keep him and 2). he should seriously consider how good he has it. Wright and Few are two good coaches to call if he wants to bounce off his thoughts and get some good feedback. X is the better program at this point, you're successful and you're happy. Don't mess with happy.

[Savannah Jay]

Just cant see Chris Mack going for that job. Its not an elite job.

You never know for sure what a head coach candidate will do until he does it.

Matta gets job after Wednesday interview - ESPN - July 8, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The search lasted 29 days. Thad Matta's turnaround took a week.

Seven days after declaring he had no interest in leaving Xavier for the vacant Ohio State basketball coaching job, Matta accepted the position on Wednesday.

The Nation's Top 10 Coaching Jobs - Eamonn Brennan, ESPN - June 7, 2012

8. Ohio State Buckeyes

And I would love to get an honest answer from Matta to this question: If you could do it over again, would you have left Xavier?

Worth noting that Xavier was in the A10 when Matta left. X is not the same job today that it was in 2004 and the A10 is not the Big East.

[Bluejay]

It seems like Mack is rumored for every job that opens up every year. Why is that? To me, it is a sign that he isn't entirely happy at Xavier for some reason (I have no idea what that reason is).

If he is constantly shopping for other jobs, OSU would be hard to turn down. They've got all the money in the world there. But geez, the timing sucks for Mack. He's got a really good team coming back next year....one year later and it may be a different story.

If Mack goes, does X try to rehire Matta? Small world.

[Xudash]

It seems like Mack is rumored for every job that opens up every year. Why is that? To me, it is a sign that he isn't entirely happy at Xavier for some reason (I have no idea what that reason is).

If he is constantly shopping for other jobs, OSU would be hard to turn down. They've got all the money in the world there. But geez, the timing sucks for Mack. He's got a really good team coming back next year....one year later and it may be a different story.

If Mack goes, does X try to rehire Matta? Small world.

Mack's name comes up every year because he's a very good coach, not because he is not happy at Xavier.

And Xavier would not bring back Matta.

[EMT]

It seems like Mack is rumored for every job that opens up every year. Why is that? To me, it is a sign that he isn't entirely happy at Xavier for some reason (I have no idea what that reason is).

If he is constantly shopping for other jobs, OSU would be hard to turn down. They've got all the money in the world there. But geez, the timing sucks for Mack. He's got a really good team coming back next year....one year later and it may be a different story.

If Mack goes, does X try to rehire Matta? Small world.

Is he is constantly shopping for jobs or does his name come up because he's the best value coach in the country? Value being results + compensation.

It would be huge for the BE if Mack & Holtmann rebuff OSU.

[stever20]

It seems like Mack is rumored for every job that opens up every year. Why is that? To me, it is a sign that he isn't entirely happy at Xavier for some reason (I have no idea what that reason is).

If he is constantly shopping for other jobs, OSU would be hard to turn down. They've got all the money in the world there. But geez, the timing sucks for Mack. He's got a really good team coming back next year....one year later and it may be a different story.

If Mack goes, does X try to rehire Matta? Small world.

Is he is constantly shopping for jobs or does his name come up because he's the best value coach in the country? Value being results + compensation.

It would be huge for the BE if Mack & Holtmann rebuff OSU.

that's what I said at the start of the thread. If Indiana and Ohio St hire new coaches, and neither Mack or Holtmann goes- that's huge. That's really 2 of the 3 biggest jobs in the Great Lakes areas non Big East. Only thing that would be bigger would be if Louisville(who I didn't include in that- 3rd was Notre Dame IMO) switched coaches, and Mack/Holtmann didn't leave- then Big East is really set. That's almost game changer.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Is he is constantly shopping for jobs ...

No. In fact, quite the opposite.

... or does his name come up because he's the best value coach in the country?

Bingo.
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Ohio State University paid men’s basketball head coach Thad Matta $5.8 million last year …

Mack made $1.4 million last year, according to USA Today ...

X should pony up some more cash to keep him ...

It's not always about the money, and Xavier isn't going to outbid Ohio State for Chris Mack's services if the Buckeyes really want him.

[Xavier4036]

Jeff Goodman is Mack's good buddy and his talking piece.

Remember when our good ole conference mate Georgetown tried to poach Mack during their mess of a coaching search? It was Goodman who tweeted out that Mack turned down $3M from Georgetown. And that isn't the first time.

Mack was/is on vacation in Turks and Caicos. When this broke yesterday, Goodman predicted Mack would get offered the OSU job and accept it. That had A LOT of people worried. Last night, he changed his prediction to Chris Holtman ending up at OSU. Makes everybody feel a little bit better.

Mack also is in the process of building a new house in Northern Kentucky and have daughters entering junior high and middle school.

He's also coming off an Elite 8 run with most of that team back including Bluiett plus the best recruiting class ever plus a $25m renovation of Cintas Center (which was already one of the nicest in the conference outside of Creighton) including a brand new weight room and training facility.

Could he make the move? Sure but after reading a few things and especially Goodman's change of heart, I'd be surprised. I'd be more nervous if it was April and not June. Really at this point it'd be all about money. He'd make the move from $1.5m to $3/3.5m

Also, of course leave it to the resident Dayton Flyer on the Big East board to compare Archie Miller's decision to leave an empty cupboard rebuild job at an A-10 school that has really seemed to plateau (and Archie knew it) to Chris Mack leaving a Big East program that has most of the pieces from an Elite 8 run back plus the best recruiting class in history. Or trying to compare it to Thad Matta deciding to leave Xavier 13 years ago going into a rebuild year in the A-10.

Both apples to apples for sure. Thanks for you value-added discussion.