BuckNuts Season in Review

Buckeyes Reflect On Year, Look Ahead To 06-07
Thad Matta		By Steve Helwagen Managing Editor Date: Mar 21, 2006 Following Sunday's NCAA Tournament loss to Georgetown, we polled the players and coach Thad Matta on their 26-win campaign, which included an outright Big Ten championship. Plus, we have comments from Matta and his returning players on next year. And, we examine the personnel leaving, staying and coming in next year for the Buckeyes. Check it out.

“This team never lost two games in a row,” said OSU coach Thad Matta, who boasts a two-year mark of 46-18 with the Buckeyes. “They put together some incredible win streaks. It’s hard to believe it’s over. Coaching this team, it feels like it’s still October because it has been so much fun. It was unfortunate for it to end the way that it did. But all good things do come to an end...

“For this team to accomplish what they did and go 26-6 and win the Big Ten championship, it was a great accomplishment. I’ve never seen a basketball team play harder...”

“I think with Terence, Matt, James and Je’Kel, what they’ve given us the last two years and the leadership they have provided and the focus they had for what we were doing, I hope they will never be forgotten at The Ohio State University because they deserve a ton of credit for what they’ve done,” Matta said...

The Players’ Take

“This was a year of overachieving,” Sylvester said. “It was a year of making bonds that will last forever. We’ve had our ups and downs, like every team has. But nobody in this room has anything to be ashamed of. I love Thad and this staff. It was a great season. No one can take the outright Big Ten championship away from us. No one has regrets here...”

“It meant a lot,” Foster said. “Every college basketball player plays this game to get to the NCAA Tournament. We did a good job of playing together to get to this point.

“We accomplished a lot of things this season. Before the year started, nobody gave us any credit. We won the Big Ten championship outright. We were the only ones who believed in ourselves...”

“No one ever gave us any credit," Sullinger said. "We were always underdogs even when we weren’t supposed to be. This team has a lot to be proud of. Ohio State basketball is back. I’m just proud to say I was part of the group that helped this program get back into the NCAA.

“Right now, I’m just happy to say I was a part of something that was as special as this. This team went through a lot on and off the court. We tried so hard and we worked so hard. This team was my family away from home. I’m going to miss them so much. It’s hard....”

Looking Forward

Six scholarship players are due to return in 2006-07. They would be joined by a five-man recruiting class ranked as the nation’s No. 2(No. 1 by several other services) class behind only North Carolina...

“We’re going to take some time and rest,” Matta said. “We have four guys playing for state high school championships this coming season and I hope they finish that off. We’ll come back after spring break and get ready to start building again. That’s the beauty of what I love to do in coaching. Put all the pieces together and go in the right direction.

“We’ll start the weight training and then we have skill instruction for two hours a week. That will mainly be ballhandling, shooting and offense stuff...”

My Take

As I said earlier, these seniors deserve a great deal of respect and credit. They fought through a great deal of adversity and did this university proud. My gratitude for them as an alumn is great. They represented us with great strength and character and gave us a season to rememeber. Thanks guys for everything!

The incoming class of Oden, Conley, Cook, Lighty, and Hunter are, imho, going to be unbelievable and along with the guys who are returning make the anticipation of next season all that more great. I can't wait till next season! Gee, how long has it been since we could say that about basketball?! The great thing about it, with Thad at the helm, it's only going to get better!

Well, that's a wrap on this season and time to look to Baseball and hope that they can add yet another Big 10 title to this great year!