Golf retirees being experts on everything - just ask them - Jim Matta can't escape hearing his son's coaching abilities analyzed every which way while carting from hole to hole as a golf course ranger in South Carolina.
Most of the opinions are positive, but every so often the same bothersome backhanded compliment surfaces. It typically rises from the undercurrent, an observation that, "Your son is one heck of a recruiter."
There is nothing negative about the comment itself. It is the unspoken addendum that sours the otherwise encouraging word. The implication is that Thad Matta's strength is in getting talent to Ohio State, not coaching it upon arrival.
"We laugh about it," Jim Matta said, "we" being father and son.
Beneath the laughter, however, lies a wisp of annoyance. After Ohio State defeated Illinois last week to earn a share of the Big Ten title - Matta's third in five seasons - Jim's boy addressed his growth as a coach.
"I think I'm doing all right," he said. "I know this: I'm a great recruiter, according to everybody."
Matta can be forgiven for that not-so-subtle dig at the perception of him as a one-dimensional coach for, while his ability to recruit is impressive, his ability to win with those recruits - as well as someone else's - is equally admirable.
He arrived at OSU in the wake of the Jim O'Brien scandal, inheriting a program that was 31-31 in O'Brien's last two seasons. Coaching that first season (2004-05) with mostly O'Brien's recruits, Matta guided the Buckeyes to 20 wins, a feat all the more notable because Ohio State learned before midseason that it was banned from postseason play because of NCAA violations. The Buckeyes could have quit on their new coach, but they did not.
Matta also has coached the Buckeyes to a school-record six consecutive seasons of 20 wins or more and five straight seasons with at least 10 conference wins, which ties Fred Taylor's run from 1960 to '64. Then there is this: Over six seasons, Matta owns the best winning percentage (.713) among Big Ten coaches in games played from Feb.1 on. His teams improve down the stretch.
As Jim Matta put it with a chuckle, "I hate to disagree with his success."
Matta on Monday was named Big Ten coach of the year, having also won the award in 2006 and 2007. He has been voted coach of the year five times in 10 years in three conferences. Yet eyebrows arched this week when Forbes.com reported that Matta is the fourth-highest-paid coach in the country - behind John Calipari of Kentucky, Billy Donovan of Florida and Bill Self of Kansas - with a contract averaging $2.5million per year.
But OSU is not paying for a recruiting specialist only. Matta can coach. His philosophy simply is based more on trust than the tactical. Rather than rivet players to an offense heavy on set pieces, Matta's approach is more free-form.
"He allows you to go out and be yourself and play basketball the way you like," forward David Lighty said. "He doesn't restrict you or tell you to do this or do that. He makes it fun for you."
Basically, Matta runs the show while managing to stay out of the way.
"When you think of his run as a coach, the focus has always been his players, the stars - David West, Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Evan Turner," explained Dan Wetzel, a national columnist for Yahoo.com. "He lets the players get the attention. I think recruits are drawn to that. Here's a guy who will make you the best player you can be and then let you enjoy the trappings of that success."
Several media cohorts think that while Matta is not derelict as a game coach, neither is he a maestro of the X's and O's. As an example, they point out how he should have called a timeout in the final seconds of the Purdue loss instead of allowing play to continue, resulting in a missed three-pointer by Jon Diebler at the buzzer. But the counter-argument is that Matta did not make a mistake as much as he remained true to his "let 'em play" philosophy.
It's hard to argue with the results. So Jim Matta doesn't. He just keeps his message simple: "He's not a bad coach," he said with a verbal wink.
Not bad at all.
Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dispatch.
roller@dispatch.com