Ohio State Associate Head Coach John Groce will be named the new Ohio men’s basketball coach at a 1 p.m. news conference tomorrow, multiple sources have confirmed.
Groce, the top assistant under Buckeyes coach Thad Matta, has worked for 14 years as an assistant coach. While at Ohio State he was part of a coaching staff that reached the National Championship game in 2007 and helped lure in top recruits Greg Oden and Mike Conley.
The 35 year old from Danville, Indiana, has also worked as an assistant at North Carolina State and Xavier, where he helped lead the Musketeers to an Elite Eight appearance in 2004.
Groce replaces former Ohio coach Tim O’Shea who took the same job at Bryant University last week.
Messages left on Groce’s office telephone have not been returned.
Reader Comments
Hopefully he can make Ohio U a good enough program to reach the finals in everything we compete in just to lose too! I can't wait!!!
What happened to a comprehensive search? It's been what, a week or less since O'Shea left? You mean to tell me of the 300+ D-1 basketball programs this was the best we could get? An assistant from OSU? I guess we can look forward to a cupcakes schedule every year and an overrated team like we tend to get from OSU every year. So much for games against teams Kansas, Maryland, St. Mary's and George Mason.
From the way O'Shea was shopping himself around I'm not surprised Shaus had a plan in place.
According to foxsports.com he seems to be a rising star in the college coaching world, don't be so pessimistic. Yes I'm sure there were plenty of people with strong head coaching experience, but I think this is a strong choice myself.
http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/8284682/Sources:-Ohio-U.-to-hire-Ohio-St.-basketball-assistant
From what I've read in the Plain Dealer,Columbus Dispatch and on Fox Sports.com this seems to be a great hire for O.U.
Most fan boards,includings O.S.U.'s, see this as a big loss for OSU and somewhat of a coup for O.U.
As far as the comment about making it to the finals and then losing;based on O.U.'s recent abiltiy to even make the post season, I'd take making to the NCCA finals and losing.
Granted it isn't the NCAA's" but OSU did win the NIT this year.
O.U. got to play in a tournmanet where you had to pay to be in it ands lost in the second of 4 rounds.
I'm glad this change happened. Maybe now we'll have a year without a player quitting or finding some other reason to leave this team, not to mention the chance for some competent play calling from the head coach.
Let's give the Coach the benefit of our support and optimism. I like this move better than recycling a head coach from another school. I do feel some angst for Coach Rhodes........he's paid his dues and deserves a shot as a head coach as well.
rpbobcat, keep in mind every newspaper in the state has sipping the OSU Kool-Aid for years... we would have hired a gopher running around on the OSU campus to coach the team and those papers would think it's great since it came from OSU.
Nonetheless this guy still does seem to have a lot of upside. Young and skilled.
ts1227:
I'm married to an OSU fan (one of the biggest in N.J.) so she keeps a couple of gallons of the Kool-Aid in the refridgerator at all times.
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