web page I gotta say I agree with Hunter on this one..
COMMENTARY
If Matta wants OSU fans to care, he should play more Ohio teams
Saturday, December 16, 2006
BOB HUNTER
Bob Hunter commentary: If Matta wants OSU fans to care, he should play more Ohio teams
As long as it took Ohio State to schedule a men?s basketball game with Cincinnati, any reasonable sports columnist probably should be thankful they are finally playing in the Wooden Tradition today in Indianapolis.
All right, so call me an ungrateful wretch. Believe me, I?ve been called much worse.
It?s just that fans at the schools deserve much more than a one-shot deal on a neutral site two or three hours from home. This game should be on the schedule every season at alternating sites, one year in Columbus and the next in Cincinnati.
When the season begins, Ohio State fans should know that no matter how many cupcakes ? a word that used to drive former coach Jim O?Brien crazy ? there are on the nonconference schedule, they can at least look forward to one game with Cincinnati.
It shouldn?t stop there, either. Dayton and Xavier also have a history of strong national programs, and they also should make frequent appearances on the Ohio State schedule. Maybe OSU could schedule a homeand-home with Dayton for two years and then do likewise with Xavier the next two years. In some seasons, those games would be even bigger than the ones with Cincinnati.
That would assure locals fans of always having at least one good Ohio rival on the home schedule every season and also would give fans an opportunity to scare up some tickets and travel to Dayton or Cincinnati for a road game that wouldn?t require a hotel room and $100 for gas.
This isn?t a new idea, nor am I the only one who has suggested it. But I?ve tried to sell this concept to every coach since Eldon Miller and haven?t found any takers, so it?s probably a slam dunk that current coach Thad Matta isn?t going to do heel clicks over something some clueless columnist suggested.
It is his schedule, after all, and we should respect that. If he wants to have one or two games on the schedule with a respected national opponent such as North Carolina or Florida and a handful of cupcakes against teams most of us wouldn?t walk across the street to see, that?s certainly his prerogative. Getting his team ready for Big Ten play and making sure his team gets an NCAA bid are always going to be among his top priorities, and if he thinks games against Ohio rivals will keep him from accomplishing that, then I guess we all have to accept that.
Unfortunately, it?s hard to believe any Ohio State coach can honestly make that point. He can imply, as the previous staff did, that there was slander from the other side on the recruiting trail that made scheduling Cincinnati impossible, or even say, as Matta has, that he doesn?t like to schedule games against his close friends.
But it?s more likely this is still a case of Ohio State being reluctant to give up a perceived recruiting advantage by risking a loss to an in-state team. That?s understandable to a point, although it always has been difficult to believe a high school basketball star seriously thinking about signing with Ohio State is going be swayed by one nonconference loss to Dayton or Cincinnati.
It seems even less likely with Matta at the controls. With Greg Oden and company here and an impressive list of top recruits on the way, recruiting is one of Matta?s strengths. And with a contract through 2015 that guarantees him an average of $2 million a year, he should be more insulated against those fears than any coach in school history.
Still, Matta isn?t likely to push for those games himself. A coach never regards the fans? interests among his primary responsibilities, and he probably will never schedule those games unless athletic director Gene Smith strongly suggests it.
On the other hand, if Matta is serious about this becoming a basketball town, if he wants the fans to go bonkers over the sport in November and December when most are still focused on a January football bowl game, the only way to do it is to give them December games that genuinely excite them.
Eastern Kentucky and Coppin State?
Sorry.
Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.
bhunter@dispatch.com
