Ohio State Buckeyes Coach Thad Matta Wants Leadership from Players

By Joseph Nardone
Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports

The Big 10 might have been the craziest conference up until this point. Teams are winning with buzzer beaters, members of the league constantly ranked in the top 10 in the country, and folks going bonkers because of the madness that is shortly to ensue come March. Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Thad Matta has experienced this all, and knows the madness is only a short time away.

Matta, not happy with his team’s loss to the Wisconsin Badgers, let his starting five know(or they realized it by themselves) that it was time for a team meeting. Not the happy kind either, those ones have Happy Meals, but the kind where player leadership needs to be shown and standout. Guard Aaron Craft spoke about the potential meeting after the loss:

“I think we all have got to go around and talk about what we need to do. We can’t play like this in February. This (was) beginning-of-the-year mistakes (and) mental errors. We need to hold each other accountable and find a way to get better.”

Matta was quotable himself, as he spoke about the team’s defense, or lack thereof:

“ We’ve got to get back to that. We’ve seen the results. If we’re not going to play defense, we’re not a good basketball team. If we’re going to rely on outscoring people, that’s not going to happen.

Luckily for Matta, as I continue using quotes, Craft agreed:

“If we want to go in the right direction, (defense is) the first thing we have to address and the first thing we have to get back. We can’t be giving up wide-open shots, wide-open layups and things like that and expect to be in ballgames at the end. It’s just not going to happen.”

So at least we know Craft and Matta are on the exact same page. Let’s hope the meeting, minus Happy Meals, helps move the team back on track.

Joe is a Senior Writer for Rant Sports. For the love of Sam Cassell, follow Joe on the Twitter Machine @JosephNardone

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