Matta, Oden, Conley Earn USBWA Honors – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 6, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The United States Basketball Writers Association named Ohio State’s Thad Matta its 2007 District V Coach of the Year while placing freshmen Mike Conley Jr. and Greg Oden on the All-District V Team.
The USBWA award is the second for Matta in as many years. Ohio State also had a pair of first teamers a season ago when Terence Dials and Je’Kel Foster were selected.
Ohio State (27-3, 15-1) enters the 2007 Big Ten Tournament on a 14-game overall win streak. The Buckeyes have won the outright league regular season title each of the last two years under Matta’s direction. The win total this year ties an Ohio State record established by the 1961 team (27-1) and later by the 1992 squad (27-4). Matta is 73-21 in three seasons as the head coach of the Buckeyes. He has never failed to win at least 20 games in seven seasons as a collegiate head coach.
Earlier Tuesday, Matta was named the 2007 Big Ten Coach of the Year by both the conference coaches and media. Oden was selected to both All-Big Ten First Teams and as the league’s Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year.
Conley made the media First Team All-Big Ten squad and was a coaches’ second team member. He, along with Oden, earned a spot on the All-Big Ten Freshman squad.
Oden led the Buckeyes in scoring (15.3 ppg.), rebounding (9.3 rpg.), field goal percentage (.614/132-215) and blocks (80) while playing in just 23 of Ohio State’s 30 games this season. His blocks total is an Ohio State freshman record and is already among the Top 10 all time for career blocks (No. 9). Conley topped the league charts in assists (191), steals (69) and assist-to-turnover ratio (+3.03). In addition, he knocked down 53 percent of his field goals to rate No. 5 among all Big Ten Conference players. His assist total set the single-season record at Ohio State and he set the freshman record for steals in a season during his rookie campaign.
Ohio State, the No. 1 seed at the event for the second-consecutive year, opens conference tournament play at noon ET Friday (ESPN) in Chicago’s United Center against either Michigan, the No. 8 seed, or No. 9 Minnesota. Those two teams play Thursday.
USBWA DISTRICT V (OH, IN, IL, MI, MN, WI)
| Player of the Year | |||||
| Alando Tucker, Wisconsin | F | 6-6 | 205 | Sr. | Lockport, Ill. |
| All-District Team | |||||
| Russell Carter, Notre Dame | G | 6-4 | 220 | Sr. | Paulsboro, N.J. |
| Mike Conley Jr., Ohio State | G | 6-1 | 180 | Fr. | Indianapolis, Ind. |
| A.J. Graves, Butler | G | 6-1 | 155 | Jr. | Switz City, Ind. |
| Dominic James, Marquette | G | 5-11 | 187 | So. | Richmond, Ind. |
| Carl Landry, Purdue | F | 6-7 | 245 | Sr. | Milwaukee, Wis. |
| Drew Neitzel, Michigan State | G | 6-0 | 180 | Jr. | Grand Rapids, Mich. |
| Greg Oden, Ohio State | C | 7-0 | 280 | Fr. | Indianapolis, Ind. |
| Jamaal Tatum, Southern Illinois | G | 6-2 | 175 | Sr. | Jefferson City, Mo. |
| D.J. White, Indiana | F | 6-9 | 251 | Jr. | Tuscaloosa, Ala. |
| Coach of the Year: Thad Matta, Ohio State |
