Matta’s Contract Amended – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
COLUMBUS, Ohio – An addendum was approved to the contract of Ohio State’s Thad Matta by the Ohio State Board of Trustees Friday.
The amendment provides for an increase in compensation and makes clear that he earned an additional “extension year,” which will keep Matta, now in his fourth year as head coach of the men’s basketball team, under contract until 2016 at Ohio State. He earned an extension year through the 2015-16 season by virtue of winning the 2007 Big Ten regular-season title.
Matta said the support from the Ohio State community has been beneficial to the program’s growth over the last three years.
“I appreciate the opportunity to continue on with what we set out to do three years ago and that is to build a national level program,” Matta said. “We are excited with the support Ohio State, the alumni and our great fans have given our program. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity.”
Miechelle Willis, Ohio State’s senior associate athletics director in charge of men’s basketball, looks forward to having Matta in Columbus for a long time.
“We are so pleased with the direction of our basketball program under Thad’s leadership,” Willis said. “Thad has taken our men’s basketball program and developed it into one of the best in the country. He is committed to the recruitment of great student-athletes with good character and is passionate about his role in the development of those young men on and off the court. We are looking forward to many years of continued success.”
The 25 percent salary increase recognizes the success the men’s basketball program enjoyed during the 2006-07 season when the Buckeyes advanced to the national title game and finished with an Ohio State record 35 victories and the program’s ninth appearance in the NCAA Final Four. Ohio State has won back-to-back outright Big Ten regular-season titles and claimed the 2007 Big Ten Tournament crown.
Ohio State opens the 2007-08 season Nov. 12-13 in Columbus in the Preseason NIT. Wisconsin-Green Bay provides the competition on opening night followed by a matchup with either Columbia or Delaware State Nov. 13. A pair of wins would send the Buckeyes to New York for the event’s semifinals and finals Nov. 21-23.
