Butler hires Thad Matta: Ex-Ohio State, Xavier coach returns as Bulldogs program makes

Butler announced Sunday that it is hiring Thad Matta as its next men’s basketball coach after the school fired LaVall Jordan on Friday after five seasons. Matta is a former Butler guard who was head coach of the program for the 2000-01 season before stops at Xavier and Ohio State. Matta has been out of coaching since the end of the 2016-17 season, which was his 13th as Ohio State’s head coach.

“The success that Thad has achieved at every one of his programs speaks for itself,” Butler athletic director Barry Collier said. “He is a championship-caliber coach and recruiter who brings valuable experience and contagious energy to Butler. I have seen that personally in Thad as a player, assistant coach and head coach. The Matta Family – Thad, Barb, Ali and Emily – has a deep appreciation for Butler and I know they join all of the Butler community in how excited we are for what’s to come.”

Matta, 54, owns a career 439-154 mark. He took the Buckeyes to the Final Four in 2007 and 2012. Ohio State finished 17-15 (7-11 Big Ten) in his final season and missed the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive campaign. In June 2017, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith announced Matta would not return. Indiana hired Matta as an associate athletic director for basketball last March, a role in which he’s worked for the past year.

“Butler is a special place, one that Barb, Ali, Emily and I each chose as our school,” Matta said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to return to Butler and lead our men’s basketball program. There is a solid foundation in place and I’m confident that Butler will consistently be among the top programs in the Big East. I can’t wait to attack the work we have in front of us and to be back on the sidelines at Hinkle Fieldhouse.”

The ousting of Jordan for Matta marks a significant shakeup within the Butler basketball family. Matta coached Jordan for three seasons as an assistant under Collier, who is now the athletic director. When Collier left after the 1999-00 season to become the coach at Nebraska, Matta was promoted to the head job for the 2000-01 season.

With Jordan as its second-leading scorer, that team became the first Butler squad to win an NCAA Tournament game since 1962. Matta then left for the Xavier job. The Musketeers were in the Atlantic 10 at the time, which was a better league than Butler’s Midwestern Collegiate Conference. In the years since, Butler called the Horizon League and A-10 home before joining the Big East for the 2013-14 season following its rise in national prominence under Brad Stevens.

Butler reached the 2018 NCAA Tournament under Jordan’s direction in his first season after taking over for Chris Holtmann, who left to replace Matta at Ohio State. The Bulldogs never returned to the Big Dance during Jordan’s tenure, although the 2020 team was on track for a bid with a 22-9 record before the event’s cancellation due to COVID-19.

Jordan’s firing came late in the 2022 coaching change cycle, at a time when nearly every other significant position that came open had already been filled. The timing was attributable to the fact that Jordan’s buyout figure dropped Friday, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander. 

Matta, it turned out, was waiting on deck to be introduced less than 48 hours later.

“Thad Matta is an exceptional choice to lead our men’s basketball program,” Butler president James Danko said. “In Thad, Butler is getting a first-class person who has put together one of the strongest résumés in all of college basketball over the past few decades. He is a Bulldog who embodies the excellence and character that we hope all of our graduates aspire to achieve in their respective industries and daily life. Our basketball program is in great hands under Thad’s leadership.”