Groce named head coach at Ohio University

[Pete Delkus]

http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/06/report_osu_assistant_john_groc.html

Ohio State assistant men's basketball coach John Groce is expected to accept an offer to become the head coach at Ohio University, Fox Sports is reporting this morning.

John Groce is expected to leave his post as an Ohio State assistant coach to become head coach at Ohio University.The OU job came open when Tim O'Shea resigned this week to take the job at Bryant University in Rhode Island. O'Shea took a cut in pay and signed an eight-year contract with the school, in part because he wanted to return to Rhode Island. He is a native of Rhode Island and owns a house not far from the Bryant campus.

Groce, 36, is the only coach on Thad Matta's staff at OSU who has been around for Matta's whole career as a head coach, following him from Butler to Xavier to Ohio State.

One look at the Buckeyes' sideline during a game reveals how important Groce is to Matta and the Buckeyes. He is a partner in Matta's occasionally wild sideline dance, always zigging when Matta zags. While Matta's intensity ratchets up when the Buckeyes are on defense, Groce is more involved on the offensive end. Groce says he began diagramming plays as a 12-year-old.

"I have a feel for the things [Matta] wants to do, especially offensively, with the calls and some of the offenses he wants to attack them with," Groce said in a 2007 Plain Dealer story. "A lot of that is feel to know the adjustments you make on the fly to adapt to who they have in the game and what matchups you might be able to exploit."

Matta has said Groce has one of the best basketball minds in the country

[The Artist]

Interesting that he'll be coaching against us next year.

[xufan02]

I will boo him like I would Thad.

[Muskie]

Looks like some people who thought Mark Schmidt would get the OU job were incorrect.

[Araceli]

This is a feather in Xu¨S CAP. Congratulations to John.

[XU05and07]

Now we get to see how good Thad really is...Three guys in Ohio competing for recruits and it has been said that Sean and John did all the recruiting...can Thad still bring in the recruits without both of these guys?

Daytime Soap Opera..."As the Basketball World Turns"

[XU 87]

Now we get to see how good Thad really is...Three guys in Ohio competing for recruits and it has been said that Sean and John did all the recruiting...can Thad still bring in the recruits without both of these guys?

Daytime Soap Opera..."As the Basketball World Turns"

OSU and OU are not going to be recruiting the same players.

Matta has been very successful at every place where he's been head coach. There's no reason that he won't continue to be successful long after Groce has left.

And I really hope people don't boo Groce. Notwithstanding the fact that it's well past the time to move on, it wasn't Groce's fault for how Matta handled leaving X. And X was also pretty good while Groce was here. So I think I'll clap for him. I hope I'm with the overwhelming majority.

[Masterofreality]

Here's a question:

Will Groce be able to bring the whiteboards with him to call the plays off of, or are they property of the Ohio State athletic department? I'm not sure if OU can afford boards or markers.

Now that Beaknose has lost his former "offensive coordinator" Groce, his former "defensive coordinator" Miller, who will he turn to? He'll actually have to recruit himself too. Maybe he'll decide to actually get away from the one and dones since he's going to lose at least one scholly next year after BJ Mullens leaves.

If anyone doesn't think that good assistants make a difference in a program, look at what happened with Skip after Dino left to go to Army.

This will be Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry Interrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrresting.

[AviatorX]

I hated and always rooted against OSU before Thad came and went, and I continue to. Thad's ways only add to the fire.

[XUglow]

Who is this "Thad" of whom you speak?

[XU05and07]

OSU and OU are not going to be recruiting the same players.

Matta has been very successful at every place where he's been head coach. There's no reason that he won't continue to be successful long after Groce has left.

And I really hope people don't boo Groce. Notwithstanding the fact that it's well past the time to move on, it wasn't Groce's fault for how Matta handled leaving X. And X was also pretty good while Groce was here. So I think I'll clap for him. I hope I'm with the overwhelming majority.

They could be recruiting the same players soon. If Thad can't recruit the way he has in the past because his top 2 recruiters are gone, then he may slip back into the ways of Jim O'Brian (sp?)...We will see how he does without the assistants.

Also, Groce will try to recruit up. That's the only way that he will win and thus put himself in a better position to take the next step up in coaching.

Groce will be recruiting up...Matta could be recruiting down...and those lines could intersect. It may be a possibility

[Juice]

I think Thad will be fine with recruiting, which is not something I want to happen. Any recruiting edge he has lost and possibly may lose by not having Groce and Sean, will most likely be offset by being at "The Ohio State University." I think Sean and Groce could out recruit Thad on a certain recruit every so often, but overall, many kids will be attracted to everything that comes along with playing at a large state school.

[XU 87]

Matta has been without Miller for four years and he's done ok recruiting (to say the least) . I don't think losing Groce is going to be that big of a deal. Successful coaches from big programs lose assistants all the time. And those coaches manage to stay successful.

[sirthought]

As an Ohio U alum, I think this was a good hire. He brings some great credentials and I believe he has the experience to run a program the right way.

Recruiting to small-town Athens is a challenge. I think one of their biggest problems is PR. There are no major media outlets that cover OU sports the way XU, UC, and OSU have. The lack of information on their players and coaches tends to impede how much recruits know about the program and they don't see themselves playing there. If they just had a better sport information department putting out the info they could really help recruiting.

The MAC has such similar teams, talent-wise, that it's hard to have strength at the top. Teams get lost and feast on themselves. But I think Groce will have a bigger impact than O'Shea did. Hopefully, they can move ahead of the pack.

[Emp]

Caveat: Never been a charter or provisional member of the Matta Hardon Squad.

Agree with 87, Matta personally recruits, personally shmoozes the parents and the athlete. He is always going to be perceived as a straight shooter, the hardcore here notwithstanding. Never a wiff of scandal. Every athlete who plays for him gets a fair chance to be exposed to pro scouts.

That said: recent quotes from Matta about contending with one and done athletes lead me to believe he is thinking very short term, and winning, not developing athletes. On top of that, it was painful to watch him try and make Koufos a C/PF for a season when the kid is a natural 3. It threw the entire team off. The same thing almost happened with Oden, but he got the unexpected bonus with Connolly, who was really ready to play college ball the moment he walked on the floor at Schottenstein.

Thad is doing his best to mask it, but he's a fairly big man himself with a very bum leg....my impression is he is not in a long term building mode..carpe diem and can't worry about four years from now. That's why Im so grateful he left us with Sean in place, an entirely different approach, and one that will serve X in the long run.

[_LH]

Matta's track record for recruiting, especially at OSU, has been impressive and I do not think losing Groce will hurt OSU as at the end of the day, kids pick a program or head coach. Duke will always get top player as long as Coach K is there. He could have a monkey recruiting for him and still land two McDonald's All Americans each year.

I do think OSU's recruiting will come back to earth though but it will have more to do with OSU's results on the court and what IU does with Crean. Purdue has re-emerged and Notre Dame has improved greatly. This is a tough area to recruit in with all the big time programs withing a 200 mile radius and all are on the upswing, excluding IU, which will be back sooner rather than later.

[vee4xu]

Wow, 16 posts and no one has yet posted that Groce is at OU being groomed to take Sean's place when he leaves Xavier. Oh wait, wrong chat board. Sorry.

As for recruiting, Thad being at OSU doesn't need the same salesmenship that he needed at Xavier. Because OSU is OSU, it pretty much sells itself and there are not as many hurdles as there are with smaller schools. Which is good becuase just a little "Um, no, yeah, uh, yeah, no" is too much in a recruit's kitchen with mom and dad around to listen. Thad may actually need to learn to talk now that Groce is gone.

[GuyFawkes38]

As for recruiting, Thad being at OSU doesn't need the same salesmenship that he needed at Xavier. Because OSU is OSU, it pretty much sells itself and there are not as many hurdles as there are with smaller schools. Which is good becuase just a little "Um, no, yeah, uh, yeah, no" is too much in a recruit's kitchen with mom and dad around to listen. Thad may actually need to learn to talk now that Groce is gone.


I'm not really sure if that's true. OSU Bball has, in the past 20 years, slipped into irrelevance to prominence and back to irrelevance.

As a bball program, OSU excels at attracting locals (Lebron James says he would have picked OSU). But OSU bball doesn't attract recruits on the national scene as much as an Indiana does or other top bball programs.

If the talent in Ohio dries up, it could be a struggle for Matta (and perhaps X too).

[vee4xu]

guy, I wasn't saying that OSU is a draw solely for its basketball team. That surely is not the case. But, there is no doubt the success of the football program, the state-of-the-art facilities and playing in the Big 10 makes it much easier. I have lived here for over 16 years and can tell you that kids want to play here because it is OSU and for the reasons I noted. The basketball program is largely marginal, but all else associated with the university is pretty top-notch. So Matta will have his hands full, but he certainly starts from an pretty easy spot.

[GuyFawkes38]

Vee, I know OSU is a great place to recruit to (especially for Ohio and midwestern kids).

I kind of see the OSU program as roughly similar to Illinois. Illinois has struggled in the past 3 years due to the lack of talent in Illinois (especially downstate).

On the other hand, Ohio (and Matta's previous stomping grounds of central Indiana) has had an absurd, mind boggling amount of talent.

It'll be interesting to see how well Matta does when Ohio dries up.

[xsteve1]

Archie Miller will step right in. Decourcy said today Archie is a coaching star on the rise. If Sean ever leaves X will have plenty of great options, from Groce to Mack to even another Miller.

[sirthought]

An OSU board interviewed Matta about the Groce hire. He mentioned he was looking at Butler University Assistant Coach Brandon Miller (NOT the kid playing at UC). He had previously been an assistant for Matta. Now I don't know if that's to fill Groce's spot on the staff or his actual position.

[MADXSTER]

Congrats to John. I think he'll be a very good coach.

It will be interesting to see the staff he puts together. Will any XU asst coaches be in the mix?

[Muskie]

An OSU board interviewed Matta about the Groce hire. He mentioned he was looking at Butler University Assistant Coach Brandon Miller (NOT the kid playing at UC). He had previously been an assistant for Matta. Now I don't know if that's to fill Groce's spot on the staff or his actual position.


Brandon Miller was Xavier's "Video and equipment Intern" during the 2003-2004 campaign a/k/a "The Run"). He had a pretty decent career playing for the bulldogs.