On Monday afternoon, The Ohio State University made news in the sports world by firing their head men’s basketball coach Thad Matta. In a statement regarding his parting of ways with the Ohio State basketball program, Matta referenced a “great song” with a familiarly grateful message. “This has probably been the greatest 13 years of my life,” remarked Matta, “If you wanted an exact thought of where my emotions are, there’s a great song that says, ‘Sometimes the light shines brightly on me, other times I can barely see. Lately it’s occurred to me what a long, strange trip it’s been,” the ex-Buckeye mused with a restrained smile.

The lyrics from the Grateful Dead‘s “Truckin,” while admittedly a bit cliche, aren’t a bad description of Matta’s tenure at Ohio State. When he took the job during the 2004-2005 season, Ohio State was ineligible for the postseason due to NCAA infractions, but Matta helped guide the school’s basketball program in the right direction. He went 337-123 overall, winning at least 20 games in all but one season, and brought teams to the Final Four in 2007 and 2012. Ten of his former players went on to be selected in the NBA Draft. However, the team has struggled in recent seasons.

According to the school’s athletic director Gene Smith, the decision to part ways with Matta was mutual. “We weren’t winning the recruiting battles,” Smith said. “As we started talking about it Friday, the flow of the conversation took me to the realization as I said to him, ‘This might be the time to make a leadership change,’ and he agreed,” mentioning that he was “trying to get healthy.”

Who knows, maybe he’s just super stoked on the top-notch shows Dead & Company is churning out this summer and wanted to ditch the recruiting circuit and jump on tour instead. If that’s the case, let the record show we’re all about it–follow that golden road, Thad! See you on Shakedown.

[h/t – USA Today]