Former No. 1 NBA Draft Pick Greg Oden Joining Thad Matta's Butler Coaching Staff

Greg Oden, who starred at Ohio State before the Portland Trail Blazers selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft, will join his former college head coach Thad Matta's new staff at Butler University.

David Woods of the Indianapolis Star broke the news Tuesday on Oden, who played under Matta during the 2006-07 season.

The Buckeyes reached the national title game, where they fell to Florida. Oden averaged 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per contest.

The 7-footer then made the leap to the NBA. Unfortunately, knee injuries derailed a promising NBA career. He ended up undergoing three microfracture surgeries and seven knee surgeries overall.

Oden showed a glimpse of what he was capable of in 2009-10, when he posted 11.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in 23.9 minutes per game. He ended up playing 105 NBA games over three seasons before retiring.

Oden will now get the opportunity to work the sidelines in Indianapolis, where he starred at Lawrence North before jumping to OSU.

Per Woods, Oden's role is to-be-determined. Matta already has three full-time assistants in Mike Pegues, Kevin Kuwik and David Ragland. He also added another former Buckeye in Jon Diebler, who left OSU as the Big Ten's all-time three-point maker (374).

Matta coached at OSU from 2004 to 2017 before taking the Butler job this year. He previously served as an assistant at Butler from 1991 to 1994 and 1997 to 2000 before leading the Bulldogs as their head coach in 2000-01. Matta then spent three years at Xavier before heading to OSU.