X-factor: Matta's job is a keeper.(College Basketball)

Thad Matta drove Xavier further into the NCAA Tournament than it had ever been. The natural assumption, at that point, was he would keep going until he landed a job in a brand-name conference where they play football and pay their basketball coaches like Friends, not Apprentices.

The phone calls came after the Musketeers finished just three points short of the Final Four, with a loss to Duke in the Atlanta Regional final. Auburn talked big money. Miami was surprised how much Matta already was making. There weren't as many jobs open as in most years, so Matta didn't have to say "no thanks" as much as he might have.

This, in itself, is not such a problem. Interest from other colleges is one reason Xavier is working to jack up Matta's pay to a level where money would be the least important factor as he evaluates any future offers. The university already handed him a contract that runs until 2013, so he has security few coaches can imagine. But being a hot item does hurt recruiting.

Two days after the Duke game, a game that might have excited prospects about the possibilities that exist for the Muskeeters, they were eliminated by one of their key targets in the recruiting class of 2005. The reason: a sudden concern he would have a different coach by the time he enrolled.

This is not unique to Xavier. It's something Gonzaga's Mark Few contends with annually. It happened with Tom Crean after Marquette reached the 2003 Final Four and subsided only when a new contract pushed him into the seven-figure pay range. If you're winning but you're not coaching in one of the six BCS leagues, you become a target for big-name programs looking for their next coaches.

Matta recognizes he already has one of the best coaching jobs in Division I. "They've made it a situation where I wake up every day and can't wait to get to work;' he says. He works for an athletic director, Mike Bobinski, who understands the importance of basketball to the overall athletic program. Matta is able to keep a first-rate staff of assistants. Xavier has a plush arena, the Cintas Center, and its capacity of 10,250 is tested nearly every game. The school has graduated just about every four-year player since the Gutenberg printing press started cranking out diplomas.

When Matta got the Xavier job, Memphis coach John Calipari told him, "It's one of the best jobs in the country, and nobody knows it." Even though the team reached the Elite Eight, changing that perception takes work.