Thad Matta: 'I grew up the biggest Bobby Knight fan you've ever seen.'
Butler coach Thad Matta grew up in the rural Illinois town of Hoopeston. The town sits on the border of Illinois and Indiana, equidistant from the Illinois and Purdue campuses.
Matta rooted for the Boilermakers as a child, but the 1976 unbeaten national champion IU team made him a fan of the Hoosiers and legendary coach Bob Knight. Knight died Wednesday at age 83.
The son of longtime basketball coach Jim Matta, Thad always had a deep passion for basketball and revered Knight as a coach. His family would rush home from church on Sundays to catch Knight's local television show "The Bob Knight Show." And Matta implemented some of Knight's pressure man-to-man defenses and motion offense concepts in his early coaching days before adapting them to better fit his teams.
A hoops dreamer from Hoopeston: The life Thad Matta was meant to live
When the two finally faced off on the court — Matta coaching at Ohio State and Knight at Texas Tech — Matta was a nervous wreck. The game was played in Dallas at the American Airlines Center. Matta's Buckeyes pulled out a 77-72 win over the Red Raiders.
"I was so nervous to coach against him," Matta said. "I grew up the biggest Bobby Knight fan you've ever seen. I would have crawled to Bloomington, I just wasn't good enough to play for him.
"I still remember, I didn't know how he's gonna be after the game and he was phenomenal. That was one (game) I'll never forget, that's for sure."
As Matta's tenure at Ohio State progressed, he grew closer with his idol. When Knight, a member of the 1960 NCAA champion Ohio State men’s basketball team, was inducted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame in 2012 the two spent the day together watching a football game. That time spent talking basketball and telling stories will stay with Matta for the rest of his life.
Bob Knight: 'He never really let the world see the good side.' But it was there.
Bob Knight's legacy is complex. But he made Hoosiers proud, and they never forgot it.
"I was always blown away by him," Matta said. "His mind was so sharp, and he remembered things, he knew history. He was just this man, full of knowledge and it was incredible. The things that he talked about and he knew, and the parallels that he would draw. Incredible.
"He was tremendous with me. ... I could call him for advice. He was very, very helpful throughout my career. A guy that loved Ohio State and wanted us to do well."
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Butler coach Thad Matta got to know Bob Knight during Ohio State days
