Thad Matta Quotes (49 Quotes)

It is a tremendous honor to be a No. 2 seed, and to get to play so close to home in Dayton. It is an incredible feeling, and it will be interesting to start preparing. But right now we need some rest and then we'll get our guys going for the NCAA Tournament.

I do think we have enough. Im hoping and praying that we get Matt back into the fold. From what were hearing, he should be good to go.

I have been a 16 seed, a 14 seed and a 12 seed, so I understand that when the ball gets thrown up you can throw those seeds out the window. With Davidson, the first thing is their experience. Offensively they want to push the ball. I think getting back and not giving up easy baskets is key.

I think he's in the best shape of his life. He's finishing much better than earlier in the season. I thought, as well as he scored and rebounded, his defense was 100 times better than it was at Michigan. He got a real film session lesson (Friday) before practice on what he had to do. To his credit, he came out and took care of business.

I don't know the answer to that. I've always put a lot more stock in winning the conference outright rather than winning the conference tournament. If we are a No. 2 seed or a 1 or a 3 - the one thing I haven't done yet is look at where we might be sent, that type of scenario. But regardless, for what we have set out to do in the rebuilding process we're in, a No. 1 seed would be tremendous in Year Two.

In order for us to be a good basketball team, Terence is going to have to play well for us. It was good to see him get back on track. He seemed more fluent in his movement tonight.

In 2004 when we came to Ohio State, we had a vision for this program. This vision is to get Ohio State back and build it into one of the greatest programs in college basketball.

We went to a different zone attack. It worked because the ball went in the basket. We got the same shots.

I don't think anyone can ever imagine -- please don't give me any credit for this. It's those 11 guys in there. They've been as solid and focused and committed as we could ask. I don't know if I've ever had a team more committed to just going out and doing what it needed to do.

Once again, we couldn't put the ball in the basket down the stretch. It was a little bit of Iowa's defense and our just not having the ball fall.

Honestly, I'm so beaten down by this thing, it only makes sense it would come around here (now). But I just honestly want to know when and what it is and finally from that point we can, for the first time at Ohio State, say, this is where we are. And move forward from there.

I think our guys have a pretty good feel that there's still another game to play. I think that they understand that obviously we're elated to be co-champions ... but once again we've put ourselves in a big position to have the opportunity to win outright on our home court on senior day.

I asked these guys to help lay the foundation for the future of this program. It looks pretty damned good to me right now.

Todays a great day for us because today is the first day in 18, 19 months where we actually know where we are. As much as we speculated, as much as we thought it through and did the case studies and all those things, it finally came to an end today, and now we know and now we move forward.

It was June last year, and we were finishing our conditioning drills. We were running around the top of the building and I told the guys if they take care of their business, when the season ends every seat in this house is going to be filled.

We did a nice job moving the basketball. A couple of those 3-pointers were pretty deep, to be honest. But to their credit, they found the open guy.

We made some big shots when we needed them. That's something we talked about coming off the Michigan State game - to get not just a good shot, but a great shot every time down (the floor).

He has a chance to be special. But it all starts with the humility he carries for 17 years old.

We went in and were very focused on playing our game, because we knew when you lose you go home. That motivates guys to play their best basketball. Fortunately for the team I was coaching, it was on a great roll both offensively and defensively.

It was two physically and mentally tough teams. There weren't a lot of easy points out there. We played well defensively, but we couldn't make a shot at the other end.

I think the thing that Greg is going to bring is a defensive presence. He's one of the best shot-blockers I've ever seen. His ability to finish around the basket is very good as well. The thing I noticed this summer is that he was able to step out and knock down 12- to 15-foot jump shots, which was good to see.

I really had to step in and challenge our guys. This was the first time all year I did not think we had the energy needed out there.

Any time you have national letters of intent come in, you're always nervous that the fax machine may be broken or anything along those lines. This signing today is unique because I think we've got every position filled. There aren't many times in college basketball you have that opportunity.

I think today was a great, great college basketball game and unfortunately for us, Wisconsin made the plays they needed to make down the stretch to beat us, which is a credit to them. We had opportunities and, with Wisconsins help, we at times lost our composure on both ends of the floor.

The biggest challenge we had at halftime was trying to do a better job rebounding the basketball. I thought that was the difference. But we kept our composure during their runs and hit some really big shots.

The light has gone on for Terence. He's seeing the sand going through the hourglass. It's his last week of regular-season college basketball. He's playing more passionate with more intensity. He's limiting those times where he's floating in and out of the game.

We were more active. We were taking away their penetration better. We were helping and recovering better. It was a constant reminder during the timeouts to 'Do what we do.' We did a decent job of that in stretches. The great thing is we can play better basketball.

Amazing. I had no idea about any of this.

As I told Terence, I don't have an answer for a 12-foot jump hook shot.

I told these guys after the game that the greatest words you can hear in college basketball are 'Ohio State advances,' and that's what we've done.

The greatest words you hear in college basketball are Ohio State advances. (The Iowa upset) is amazing. But again, it's all the proof you need that there's no guarantee.

I think I pulled a hamstring. We wanted them to have their feet set, legs bent and to shoot with confidence. A lot of times, shooting becomes contagious. Today fortunately for us it got contagious and we were able to knock down the last 6 of 7 three-pointers.

I dont care if were a one or a two. I dont think anybody would have ever predicted that.

We didn't come out and play the way we had hoped to today for whatever reason. And I thought we were tentative defensively. I didn't think we were as active as we needed to be. Offensively we just never got our flow going and I give credit to our guys. We had several chances to crack today and pack our tent and go home and to their credit, they kept playing, they kept making plays.

We have to make do with it. I think we used five to get four guys this year.

I told them after Christmas that we didn't play hard enough against Tennessee State to really evaluate the tape. We're not a good enough basketball team to do that. If we don't play with the intelligence and intensity we have to, there's going to be some long nights for us.

The thing that hurt us was foul trouble, it crushed us. They're a prolific shooting team, and if we left our assignments for a second...

Indiana may be one of the most talented teams in the country. They play great team basketball.

I thought we did a great job of sharing the basketball and finding the open guys. To have 20 assists and nine turnovers is something we're always striving for.

Jim's way ahead of us.

Two trademarks I'd like for people to say about our basketball team are that they play hard and with intelligence and they take care of the basketball.

It's hard, because it's been such a tremendous season. This ride has been one of the most incredible I've been on as a coach. That's a credit to the kids. It's hard to accept it's over, because it's been so much fun.

He's finishing better than he was earlier in the season. His defense was 100 times better than the last time we played Michigan.

What coach Foster has done in his short time is nothing short of remarkable. We're trying to stay on the coattails of them and football.

We always tell the guys, and this is hard for them to understand, but don't tie your offense to your defense. There are going to be games when the shots don't fall, and Michigan is too good for us to try and trade shots with them.

It really becomes a guessing game with what somebody is going to try and do (defensively). And you prepare for both scenarios. Obviously, we need Terence to be playing his best basketball. That's no hidden secret for us to be an effective basketball team.

To win this league, the toughest league in the country, and to be outright champs is a tribute to their effort.

To have this burden lifted off us, the smoke cleared. My wife cried tears of joy today because I have been tough to deal with for a long, long time.

We had to live with two tough losses to those guys a year ago.