Thad Matta is returning to Ohio State university according to Yahoo.com’s Pat Forde.

There had been a lot of speculation that Matta’s health would cause him to step down, however, Forde indicates that is not the case and the OSU job will not open up.

So why is this on an NC State site? Well, because it could directly affect NC State and their coaching search. See, as you know, Archie Miller is NC State’s top candidate. Archie is currently coaching at Dayton (Ohio) and grew up in western Pennsylvania. It’s safe to say that he has a lot of ties to that area as well as Thad Matta himself (he was an assistant under him.) We’ve also been told that OSU is Miller’s dream job and if it opens, you can bet he’s taking it. But now that we know Matta is not leaving, what will Archie do?

Archie obviously will listen to an NC State offer, but will he take it? Even if Ohio St is likely out of the question, there is still the chance that he just stays put at Dayton and waits for that job to open. But that would be taking a risk. Miller has a senior-heavy team right now, and that group has been responsible for a lot of the success he’s had at Dayton. With them gone, will he be able to keep up the winning, or will he have to rebuild? One or two down seasons of retooling a roster could turn a rising star into an afterthought in the coaching game. So Archie has a pretty interesting decision to make.

We’ve talked with a source close to Archie who assured us that Miller knew that NC State was interested and that he honestly has not made a decision about his future (although he does have a lot of old Wolfpack friends in his ear.) That was before the Matta news broke last night and I’m sure that has to be some sort of factor in the decision-making process.

Note that Miller’s wife’s family is still in the area and they are both NC State grads with heavy contacts in Raleigh. The Matta news should definitely be good if you’re an NC State fan, but it doesn’t guarantee anything.