Mike DeCourcy

Thad Matta had lived in the state of Ohio for three years, but there never had been any reason to travel to The Ohio State University. He was a basketball coach, and OSU was a football school. So unless he wanted to check out the latest in sweater-vest fashion, what would be the point?

But the Buckeyes needed a head basketball coach, and Matta was a candidate for the job. No one really knew he was involved — and he preferred it that way — but he had to see the place before making up his mind. So he jumped in his car and pointed it straight north on I-71. Arriving in Columbus about 90 minutes later, he threw on a pair of sunglasses and a ballcap as a disguise, as though he were Brad Pitt or Britney Spears. And Matta saw what would be possible at such a place.

This is what was possible: Ohio State in the Final Four. Not even three years after Matta's incognito inspection, the Buckeyes are here. They are here not with an overachieving team no one saw coming, the way they made it under the previous regime in 1999. They are here with big stars: freshman center Greg Oden, freshman point guard Mike Conley and, indeed, Matta himself. They are certainly not a we're-just-happy-to-be-here squad.

Riding a 21-game winning streak, Ohio State is part of the new paradigm in college basketball. It no longer is a handicap to wear the jersey of a university whose supporters believe the first weekend of April is for spring football. In fact, all those football ticket sales help pay for basketball's practice gyms, charter jets and high-profile coaches. This season and last, half the Final Four teams came from football-first schools.

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But there wasn't all the evidence success on the football field could translate to the hardwood when the Ohio State gig opened in June 2004. Matta had grown up in a small town in Illinois and dreamed of coaching in the Big Ten, but he also recognized the allure of Indiana, a real basketball school, where the coaching staff seemed to be running out of time. He pondered whether to stay longer at Xavier and avoid the hassle certain to result at OSU from the NCAA investigation into former coach Jim O'Brien's admission he gave money to the family of a signed recruit.

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Then Matta considered the flood of talent coursing through the next several high school classes in Ohio and across the border in Indiana. They included 80 percent of the group now known as the Thad Five — Oden, Conley, shooting guard Daequan Cook and small forward David Lighty. He thought about the resources that might help draw them to OSU. He took the job. The Buckeyes since have signed or gotten commitments from nine top 50 prospects, including the greatest recruiting prize of the past 15 years.

"It was just a place that was best for me," Oden says. "It always starts off with the coaches. It wasn't if it was a basketball school or not. It was a place where I could improve my game and where I could become a better player and have a chance to win a national championship."