Hlas: In one swoop, off go Matta and Stoops

Bam, and then, boom.

First came Monday's news Thad Matta was fired as Ohio State's men's basketball coach. Then the story broke Wednesday afternoon that Bob Stoops was retiring as Oklahoma's football coach, effective immediately.

Matta and Stoops took their programs to places that fans at most schools can only wistfully imagine. Let's start with Matta, who was coming off his only losing season in Big Ten play in his 13 seasons at Ohio State.

Matta's Big Ten record was 150-78. What does that feel like over the last 13 years? Wisconsin knows. So does Michigan State. But everyone else in the league has no idea.

Two Final Fours. Four Sweet Sixteens. Five regular-season Big Ten titles. All-Americas galore.

But Matta's program had slippage in 2015-16, and a big drop-off last season. Iowa's 85-72 win over the Buckeyes on Jan. 28 in Iowa City was jarring. Peter Jok didn't even play in that game for the Hawkeyes, who started three freshmen and two sophomores and still thoroughly outplayed OSU.

'We weren't here,' Matta said. 'I know we were on the floor but I'm just very disappointed in how we played.'

When you get so used to excellence and competitiveness from any program, it's disappointing to see it gone. It was gone from the Buckeyes that night.

But even though it's June, OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith will pluck a highly respected coach from somewhere. Ohio State's gonna Ohio State, and there will soon be another shark in the conference's tank. Illinois hired one this spring in Brad Underwood. Indiana hired one in Archie Miller.

The next couple seasons look very promising for Iowa with the players Fran McCaffery has put in his program. But no one in the Big Ten will hand him anything.

As for former Iowa defensive back Stoops, a record of 190-48 in 18 years at Oklahoma speaks for itself. Good morning, good afternoon, good night.

Sure, you're supposed to win at OU. But not everyone who has coached there did that. You still have to win the recruiting battles in the Southwest. You still have to win the Big 12. You still have to beat Texas.

Eleven regular-season Big 12 championships were part of Stoops' ledger. So were wins in six major bowls. And seven Top 5 finishes.

Yet, enough is never enough in some circles. The national-championship of 2000, Stoops' second season, went from being a king-making moment to a mountain he never again quite climbed. There were three more appearances in BCS title games and a College Football Playoff semifinal berth, but no big trophy.

It's funny how expectations vary from place to place. It's hard to imagine five Big Ten men's basketball titles in 13 years at Iowa, mainly because it's never come close to happening. Just win one here, and watch multiple authors of books and designers of statues race to work.

Try to wrap your mind around four appearances in football's national title game this millennium, with a CFP appearance to boot. In Oklahoma, that's called the expected. At Iowa — or Wisconsin or Michigan State or a lot of other places with pretty proud football heritages — it's dreamland.

At the end of the day, Matta and Stoops won and won and won some more, and would have done so wherever they coached.

That they did so in places where the resources to make winning easier obviously didn't hurt. But Matta and Stoops took their opportunities and put indelible stamps on them.

You could say they will be missed. But their opponents won't necessarily agree.

Oh, Stoops' retirement also means Iowa's Kirk Ferentz is the longest-tenured FBS coach at the same school. You may hear that a time or two from this day forward.