Wally Szczerbiak talks about Thad Matta, Sean Miller recruiting him to Miami University

CBS Sports Network analyst and former Miami University standout Wally Szczerbiak talked about being recruited to MU by former assistant coaches Thad Matta and Sean Miller, as the Xavier Musketeers and Butler Bulldogs met Wednesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Studio host Adam Zucker asked Szczerbiak before the game on CBSSN about coming to Oxford when Matta and Miller were MU assistant coaches under then-head coach Herb Sendek during the 1994-95 season.

"They recruited me. They coached me. Outstanding coaches. They've been doing it for a long time," Szczerbiak said of Matta and Miller. "It was awesome. When I went on my recruiting visit and I opened my door to my hotel room, there were literally 3s plastered all over the hotel room. Like I would literally pick up my remote (to my) TV, 3s would like fall out of it. Like there were all cut up little 3s. It was the most outstanding pitch recruiting trip I've ever had. It sealed me immediately."

Late in the first half of CBS Sports Network's Xavier-Butler broadcast, play-by-play announcer Andrew Catalon gave color analyst and former Villanova head coach Steve Lappas a hard time about not recruiting Szczerbiak to play for the Wildcats.

"Szczerbiak was recruited to Miami of Ohio by a couple of assistants named Thad Matta and Sean Miller. We talked about that with both coaches before the game. Lap, where were you?" Catalon joked.

"You know what? I don't want to hear about it!" Lappas replied. "I told both. I don't want you to give me grief! I'm not the only guy in the Big East who didn't recruit (him). He's from Long Island, by the way, and St. John's didn't recruit him. So everybody in the Big East saw him. Didn't think he was good enough. We made a mistake."

Zucker joked at halftime that Lappas refers to Szczerbiak as "the one that got away."

"Lap, I used to run to get the mail every single day," Szczerbiak said. "'Can I please get a letter from Villanova? Please please please let me get a Villanova letter.' Nothing never came. So I ended up in really good hands with Sean Miller and Thad Matta. Those were outstanding human beings, just great coaches, great guys."

Szczerbiak was inducted in 2022 into the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Steve Lappas: Big East 'mistake' to not recruit Wally Szczerbiak