Matta’s back, as is his back

COLUMBUS, Ohio – It’s not an injured player who is the biggest question mark for the Ohio State basketball team. Everyone’s keeping a wary eye on the ailing coach.

Thad Matta, who led the Buckeyes to a 35-4 record and a second-place finish in the NCAA tournament last year, had two major surgeries this past summer for disk problems in his back.

“I’m gettin’ better – slowly but surely,” Matta said Thursday as he gingerly got into his car outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

He was at the football team’s headquarters because ABC asked him to read the starting lineups to be shown before Saturday’s game between the top-ranked Buckeyes and Michigan State. Matta even donned a sweater vest for the occasion, just like his football counterpart wears.

A week into the Buckeyes’ preseason workouts, Matta is mobile and upbeat, but is limited in what he can do. He still wears a brace on his right foot to correct a lingering “foot drop” that is a result of nerve damage resulting from the surgeries.

“I’m making progress every day. My back, most importantly, is getting stronger,” Matta said on the team’s media day. “I still have the foot drop working, but I’m able to do pretty much whatever I want to do.”

Within reason, that is. Matta, a former player at Butler, was famous for jumping out on the floor to show a player how to take a charge or how to box out a big man. There’s no more of that.

In practices, Matta, who got a raise last month to almost $2.5 million a year, has been forced to delegate more.

He missed the tail end of recruiting this summer because of surgery on Aug. 1 to remove a portion of the bony arch of a vertebra in his lower back. He had surgery on June 16 to repair a bulging disk.