It wasn't a matter of whether former Xavier head basketball coach Thad Matta would seek another job at a big-name school, but when.

After all, it was Matta who led a basketball team from a small Jesuit school in Cincinnati to the brink of playing for the national championship in 2004, losing in the regional final to Duke. Everyone knew he would be courted by larger schools, despite a long-term contract that would have kept him at Xavier through 2013.

The answer came Wednesday after a frantic day he spent visiting Ohio State University, then accepting the job there. Until he took the job, he had denied he was even a candidate, which understandably upset some Xavier fans. Too bad Matta didn't handle his exit with the same diplomacy and candor he has shown during his years at Xavier. But that's beside the point now.

In the high pressure, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business of big-time collegiate coaching, you have to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. A few losing seasons and your stock can drop like a deflated basketball. Matta is a rising star, so no one should blame him for moving to a bigger school for more money and prestige.

This is no time for bitterness or mourning. Xavier's program is going to be fine. The school quickly named its associate head coach, Sean Miller, as the new head coach, and building blocks for the future remain in place. Miller, a former guard at Pittsburgh, has been at the school since 2001 and played a huge role in the school's most recent success. He was a sound choice.

What's impressive about the Xavier athletic program is that it emphasize steam over individual personalities. Miller can continue the school's long run of excellence.

In Matta's three years at Xavier, he elevated the program into the national spotlight, and helped groom a national player of the year in David West, now a pro, along with several other players from Xavier.

Xavier will continue to be a first-rate academic school (Miller noted Thursday that all the team's seniors graduated during the past three years) that happens to field pretty good basketball teams. That will always be a drawing card.