Thad Matta  Thad Michael Matta (born July 11, 1967) is an American college basketball coach. From 2004 to 2017, Matta led the Ohio State Buckeyes to five Big Ten Conference regular season championships, four Big Ten Tournament titles (2007, 2010, 2011 and 2013), two Final Four appearances (2007 and 2012), and the 2008 NIT Championship. He is the winningest coach in Ohio State history. A basketball standout for the Cornjerkers at Hoopeston-East Lynn High School in Hoopeston, Illinois, Matta was a two-year starter for the Butler University Bulldogs in three seasons after transferring from Southern Illinois University as a sophomore. He led Butler in assists (1000) and three-point field goal percentage (.433) in 1987–88 and in free-throw percentage in 1988–89 (.872). He served as a team captain (one of the Butler tri-captains that year) on Barry Collier's first team in 1989–90 and finished his career in sixth place on Butler's all-time list for free-throw percentage (.800). He earned a B.S. degree from Butler in 1990. Matta enjoyed his Butler career-high point total of 21 points against Xavier University at the Cincinnati Gardens on March 2, 1989. In total, Matta spent six seasons as a full-time assistant coach at three different universities, helping his squads compile a composite 128–58 (.688) record and make six postseason tournament appearances. He was on the bench in five consecutive conference tournament championship games and won four league tournament championship rings. He was in the NCAA tournament five times as an assistant under four different head coaches and in the postseason National Invitation Tournament once. Matta began his coaching career at Indiana State University as a graduate assistant under head coach Tates Locke in 1990–91. Matta served as an academic coordinator and administrative assistant at Butler (1991–94) before moving into the full-time coaching ranks. Matta took his first full-time assistant coaching position under Herb Sendek at Miami University (Ohio) in 1994–95 and helped Miami to a 23–7 record, a Mid-American Conference regular-season championship and a first-round win in the NCAA tournament. The following year, Matta accepted a coaching position at Western Carolina University under Phil Hopkins and helped the Catamounts to a 17–13 record, the school's first winning record in 10 years. Western Carolina captured the Southern Conference tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament.