Thad Matta has turned down the job at Georgia
After reportedly being offered the job at Georgia, Thad Matta has removed himself from consideration.
After the firing of Mark Fox last Saturday, some significant names surfaced as candidates to be the next men’s basketball coach at Georgia. Among them was former Ohio State coach Thad Matta, who according to multiple reports was offered the job after meeting with school officials on Monday.
Now, two days later, Matta has turned down the job at Georgia. Earlier this month, Matta was in Oxford meeting with Ole Miss about replacing Andy Kennedy, but that school has now turned to Middle Tennessee coach Kermit Davis to fill that vacancy.
ESPN’s Jeff Goodman passed along a statement from Matta.
Thad Matta on spurning Georgia: "It was the most difficult decision because Georgia is a tremendous opportunity for a coach to build a great program. Unfortunately, I just don’t feel that I am completely ready at this point to give Greg McGarity and Georgia what they deserve."
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 14, 2018
Matta had a highly successful 13-year run at Ohio State, with 20 or more wins, five Big Ten regular season titles, four conference tournament titles and two Final Fours over his first 12 seasons. But a second straight season without an NCAA Tournament bid in 2016-17, and a 17-15 record, put Matta on the hot seat before he and the school agreed to part ways/he was fired last June.
Matta has a history of back issues. So perhaps health concerns are what he is citing when he says he’s not quite ready to give Georgia and athletic director Greg McGarity what they deserve. But it’s unlikely that a low-ball offer was out there, or numbers in a contract played a role in Matta turning the job down.
When he departed from Ohio State last summer, athletic director Gene Smith made it clear the rest of Matta’s contract would be honored since he was being let go without cause. He had three years left on his deal, with a buyout due to hand him a significant part of an amount in the neighborhood of $9 million.
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Among other notable job openings, Matta could still be a candidate to replace Kevin Stallings at Pitt or Kevin Ollie at UConn. But it’s not a good look that he has spurned Georgia, and perhaps did the same to Ole Miss under a guise of a report saying the two sides “parted ways.” Other schools looking for a new coach have surely noticed.