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          Men's College Basketball Blog

          Ohio State unveils new uniforms with Thad Matta as model

          • Eamonn Brennan, ESPN Staff WriterSep 29, 2016, 03:10 PM ET
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            • Covers college basketball
            • Joined ESPN.com in 2009
            • Graduate of Indiana University
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          October approaches with frightening speed, and with it comes the unofficial start of college basketball season: Midnight Madness, practices, media days. It is a preamble filled with optimism, a time to introduce new rosters and new schedules and new-look uniforms; a chance for every program to put its best face forward.

          Get a load of Ohio State's.

          In addition to the media day responsibilities that fall upon any coach -- insisting repeatedly that one "likes" his team, being asked "Can you talk about ..." approximately 40 times and so on -- Ohio State coach Thad Matta went above and beyond at OSU media day Thursday. The above piece of photojournalism combines trending dad bod influences with Zoolanderian facial intensity. The result is a work of art.

          And, like much great art, it was inspired by necessity. According to Buckeyes video coordinator Kyle Davis, who took the Twitter photo, the staff was looking for a way to to show off the team's new uniforms on social media before media day kicked off in earnest. He and OSU director of basketball operations David Egelhoff were laying the uniform out on various surfaces -- tables, floors and so on -- when Matta, en route to his daily workout, walked by.

          "He asks us, 'What are you guys doing?' and we tell him we're trying to show the new uniforms but we don't really know what to do with this -- we don't have a mannequin," Davis said. "And he says, 'Why do you need a mannequin? I'm right here.'"

          "We thought there was no way he was actually going to do this," Davis said. "But Coach said 'give me two minutes,' and sure enough he came out wearing the uniform. He wanted everyone to know he still had it."

          Fair enough. The uniforms themselves (cut in the same style as Nike's 2016 Rio Olympics editions for USA Basketball) aren't too shabby, either.