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Thad Matta was introduced as the Butler head basketball coach on Wednesday morning after spending time outside of the coaching circle for the past few seasons.

Last year, Matta spent the season as the Associate Athletic Director to the Indiana men's basketball program. While he wasn't on the court coaching, he spent a great deal of that season behind the scenes helping bridge the gap for first-year college coach Mike Woodson.

With 17 years of head coaching experience at the college level and more than 10 additional as an assistant, Matta had a lot of insight on not only building a team, but building a strong one and one that was repeatable in a way to build a strong program. That was how he provided insight to Woodson.

"Woody was gonna do what Woody was gonna do, but just in terms of (teaching him) the college game," Matta said during his introductory press conference. "Helping him put together a staff. Helping him with job responsibilities, those kinds of things... He didn't know a lot of the recruiting, the rules, the regulations."

With Woodson coming from the NBA where its version of 'recruiting' was quite different than the rules and regulations of the NCAA in the college game, there was a lot of learning curves. That's where Matta stepped in immediately and made an impact.

"A lot of it was just the recruiting, what he could do and what he couldn't do," Matta said. "Just like, on an unofficial visit we can't leave campus. He'd say, 'Let's take him to eat.' We'd have to say, 'No, no, we can't leave campus.'"

While recruiting was the main learning curve for Woodson, the first-year head coach also allowed for Matta to perfect his craft and learn from the experienced NBA coach in many ways as well -- allowing for an almost 'easing in' role last year.

"This year, being around it but not in it, was really good for me," Matta said. "Sitting in meetings and watching practice and learning an inordinate amount of basketball from Woody, that kind of got me going again.

"Mike is such a special guy. He's got one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen in terms of just his compassion. What I walked away with is his commitment to the game of basketball. Mike Woodson loves basketball. Loves ball. I'd sit in those meetings and we'd be watching, God knows who we were watching play, just because he wanted to learn. He wanted new ideas and wanted to be innovative. That's what I took away was that burning passion for the game of basketball."

"I’ve watched Thad from afar. This is the first time I’ve had an opportunity to sit and talk with Thad," Woodson said during his introductory press conference at Indiana. "Again, great basketball mind. My ego has always been intact in terms of being able to accept great basketball minds and what they are thinking. I think that’s healthy from a coaching standpoint and I think it can’t do anything but help me as I move up the road and try to build this basketball team. I’m grateful that Thad is on board."

As Matta leaves Bloomington after one short year, his advice and help will not go unnoticed as it helped contribute to Indiana's return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.

He now returns to Butler, where his head coaching career got underway over 20 years ago.

"I don't ever like being in the spotlight, but I know in the position I'm in, it comes with the territory. When I went to Bloomington, I didn't want that. I just wanted to be behind the scenes and doing whatever Indiana needed me to do. I didn't want the notoriety of any of that. That's kind of who I am," Matta added. "That is Mike's program and I hopefully did something to help him be successful this year, and most importantly because I fell in love with Indiana, did something to help the future of the program."

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