Six years ago, Thad Matta arrived in Columbus with realistic expectations.

“When we rolled in here and I think back to the first team meeting we ever had,” Matta said, “we were on a four-year plan to be honest.”

The former Xavier coach had just been hired at OSU to take over for Jim O’Brien, who was fired amidst allegations of NCAA violations. The Buckeyes had finished just 14-16 the year before, and to make matters worse, the school was under a self-imposed ban from postseason play.

With consistent success of the football and the women’s basketball program, it may have been easy for Matta and the men’s team to slide under the radar. But Matta has done virtually the opposite.

Obviously, football reigns supreme in Columbus, and nothing may ever change that. However, after Matta’s third Big Ten title in the last five years, basketball is no longer the afterthought that it once was.

“You know, [with] football and women’s basketball I kind of feel like the low man on the totem pole,” Matta said. “It’s an honor to be put in with what Jim [Tressel] and Jim [Foster] have done with their programs and to be mentioned in that same breath is an honor and humbling. Hopefully we can continue.”

Matta will be the first to admit, the success didn’t come easy. He has seen five of his players leave the program after their freshman years and has been forced to start from scratch nearly every year. Although this year was different, with all but one player returning from last season, it was not without its hardships.

Just eight games into the season, OSU lost junior Evan Turner to a back injury that was expected to sideline him for eight weeks. A little more than a month later, Turner was back at full strength, but the Buckeyes were sitting at just 1-3 in conference play.

As his team prepared to play then No. 6 Purdue on Jan. 12, Matta joked that the pressure had become too overwhelming.

Fortunately, he stuck with it to see his team pull off a 70-66 upset of the Boilermakers. The win was the start of a streak that saw the Buckeyes win 13 of their remaining 14 conference games en route to the conference championship.

“We got rolling from that game and it was a tremendous comeback against a tremendous basketball team,” Matta said. “I felt like the deck was stacked a little bit against us. Starting out 1-3 and winning 13 of our last 14, that’s a tribute to those guys down in our locker room.”

Although Matta is quick to credit his players, most of the acclaim should be directed toward Matta. He has seemingly defied the odds every year in Columbus, and just six seasons into his still young career as the coach at OSU, he has the program back in the national spotlight.

“I think that it’s exciting,” Matta said. “In year two to win a Big Ten championship, the next year to play for a national championship, the next year to win the NIT, the next year to lose Dave Lighty and to make the NCAA tournament. Now sitting here as Big Ten champs again, I like where we are.”