Ohio State coach Thad Matta isn't worried. Sure, torn wrist ligaments aren't the same thing as microfracture surgery on a knee, but still, he knows Greg Oden.
Last season, Oden sped up his recovery, returning in early December after missing just seven games for the Buckeyes. Originally, he was told the wrist injury would keep him out until January.
So don't think for one second that Matta sees Oden slacking off during rehab, as he attempts to comeback after undergoing major surgery to repair his knee.
Matta and Oden traded messages Thursday before finally talking late Thursday night.
"He was devastated," said Matta, who coached Oden to the national championship game with Ohio State last April.
"But I told him that Greg is 19 years old and he's probably going to play this game until he's 34, 35 or 36 years old. I watched him in his rehab at Ohio State. I watched him get his wrist better. He'll do things to get healthy.
"I don't know the specifics [of the microfracture rehab] but he will do things to be as healthy as quickly as possible," Matta said.
Matta said the athletic training staff at Ohio State had told him that they had never had someone like Oden.
Ohio State probably hasn't seen someone like Matta, either.
He's about as energetic and intense a coach as there is in the sport.
Matta bops around constantly, seemingly never standing still. The problem is that he is in a complete slow-down mode this summer.
Matta had his third and fourth back surgeries in his life since the title game in Atlanta. The first one was to remove a herniated disc. That surgery made him extremely limited on the recruiting trail earlier in the summer. He couldn't drive and was still in pain. He ended up coming off the road for the latter part of the July evaluation period.
Matta was bothered enough that he went in for a second surgery to clean out one of the nerve canals around his L-5 vertebrae.
This week, Matta was tossing high fives with trainers because he had movement in his calf.
"That was big for me," Matta said.
He's back to strengthening his core and he's driving again.
"I think I'm going to be in good shape," Matta said. "But I'm very careful where I move right now."
The challenge for Matta will be to restrain himself once practice starts next month. School starts next week and Ohio State will begin individual workouts but Matta will be much more reserved then. Once practice starts, Matta's traditional hands-on approach is shelved for the foreseeable future. Instead, he told his assistants, "Your ass is going in to demonstrate."
Meanwhile, Matta couldn't be more pleased with
Kosta Koufos' MVP performance for the Greek junior national team this summer.
"He was apprehensive at first since that team had been together, but hopefully he'll get a taste of what he's going to do [in college]," Matta said.
The competition was intense as Greece made it to the gold medal game of the European U-18 championships in Madrid last month. Koufos averaged 26.5 points, 13 boards and 3.5 blocks.
Koufos is the heir apparent to take over for Oden in the middle, although he won't be feeling too much heat with the return of
Othello Hunter,
Kyle Madsen (who sat out last year as a transfer),
Matt Terwilliger and
Dallas Lauderdale.
Andy Katz
