INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Longtime college basketball coach Thad Matta announced Monday he is retiring after a career that included 13 NCAA Tournaments and a national title game appearance with Ohio State.
Matta spent the past four seasons at Butler, his second stint at the helm of his alma mater. The Bulldogs suffered a season-ending 91-81 loss to Providence in the Big East Tournament.
Matta, 58, will remain on staff as a special counselor to President Jim Danko and athletic director Grant Leiendecker. Butler officials said they have begun searching for his successor.
“The love my wife, my daughters and I have for Butler is what brought us back four years ago, and it feels especially meaningful that I conclude my coaching career here,” he said in a statement. “Butler has always meant more to us than just basketball — and that connection is why I’m grateful to continue working with the university and offering my help in any way I can. I want this program to compete at the highest levels of the Big East and national landscape, and I am excited to be part of what we continue to build here.”
Matta finishes his head coaching career with a 502-223 record, winning eight conference regular-season titles at three different stops — Butler, Xavier and Ohio State. He led the Buckeyes to two Final Fours, losing to Florida in the 2007 title game. He is Ohio State’s winningest coach, compiling 337 wins over 13 seasons.
He was named the 2000-01 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year in his first season at Butler. The Bulldogs went 24-8 that season, breaking the school’s single season record for victories and winning the program’s first NCAA Tournament game since 1962.
Matta went 63-69 in his second tenure with Butler, compiling a 39-55 mark in league play. He couldn’t guide Butler back to the NCAA Tournament in this new era of college sports.
Instead, the Bulldogs settled for playing in the NIT following his only winning season (18-15) in 2023-24 and reached the quarterfinals of last year’s College Basketball Crown tournament.
Butler has struggled to keep up with NIL and the transfer portal in an increasingly stronger Big East. Matta couldn't recreate the script that thrust the program into national prominence more than two decades earlier — relying on overachieving post players, consistent 3-point shooters and player development over multiple seasons.
Matta was selected as Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year once during his three-year tenure at Xavier and three times was named Big Ten Coach of the Year with the Buckeyes. In June 2017, he left Ohio State because of health reasons. He returned to the college circuit when he joined coach Mike Woodson's staff at Indiana in 2021-22 before returning to the sideline at Butler.
Before becoming a head coach, Matta also served twice as an assistant coach with the Bulldogs. The Illinois prep star began his college career at Southern Illinois but eventually transferred to Butler, where he became a two-year starter and found a home he could always return to.
“Thad has made the thoughtful decision, together with his family, to step away from coaching and begin a new chapter in his remarkable career,” Danko said. “He has built a Hall of Fame–worthy legacy in college basketball and has been a valued member of our campus community since he first arrived at Butler as a student-athlete in the 1980s. Butler has always been a special part of his story, and we are grateful that he chose to return and finish his coaching career where it all began."
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