Holtman's success has been very so - so there by OSU standards, and he's 31-29 there in the B10 after his 1st season where he was using inherited players.
Matta had very good success at X and OSU, but was slipping some his last 4 yrs at OSU.
he had 2 real good NCAA runs, one lead by the Conley, Oden, Cook, package deal recruiting get, where he was effectively the home school coach for all 3, as Cook was an OSU guy from Dayton, and Matta was coach at Butler when Conley and Oden were growing up.
but as i've noted before, i judge OSU differently, as OSU has a big built in recruiting advantage over the rest of the B10, and much of the country, due to their being the home school for an entire state twice the population of Indiana, with no major in state rival at all to deal with for fan base or recruits..
no other school in the country has that, and IU suffers from the exact opposite numbers issue, being one of 3 major schools in a state half the size of Ohio, with much of the population being in parts of the state where IU is not the home school for the local media, and often not even the 2nd school for regions where a lot of the population is.
and good home state recruiting brings good out of state recruiting with it.
i kind of see OSU as the college version of the 5,000 enrollment high school who plays in a conference where no other HS has more than 2,000 students.
they just always have a much bigger home base to pick from.
why OSU has been good in most sports most of my life, going back to Lucas/Havlicek, then Bill Hosket thru to today in bball.
that said, Matta did do very well there his first 2/3rds of his time there..
he also has to get credit for continuing Butler's extended streak that spanned several coaches, of whom he was the only one who's success really followed him to other schools.
again though, he was trending down when he left OSU.
i'll admit others are bigger on Matta than i, but maybe that's a me thing.
if it's not Stevens, i still think Wittman would be my first choice by far, but no idea if he'd even take it now.
i see Wittman as the best combination of cred/bling for recruiting, and an X and Os coaching background from a who's who of coaches he has played or coached under.
that said, Dolson and IU's bball alum base know as much as anyone regarding who would be a great fit, and have direct experience with some good candidates no doubt.
direct knowledge shouldn't be discounted, and is what was used in bringing up Tom Allen to head coach.
glad Dolson says he and IU's inherant bball brain trust will make the call, and hope they go with their gut.
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