Postgame Quotes: No. 20 Ohio State 74, Marquette 63 – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2014
POSTGAME QUOTES
No. 20 Ohio State 74 (2-0), Marquette 63 (1-1) ?
November 18, 2014?
Value City Arena – Columbus, Ohio?
Attendance: 13,233
Thad Matta, Ohio State head coach
On Shannon Scott’s performance vs. the Golden Eagles
“I loved Shannon’s demeanor. We want him to be aggressive. He made great reads in transition and found guys.”
On the depth of scoring
“I like the fact that guys at an early age understand where their shots are going to come from. That’s something we’ve spent a lot of time on.”
On passing in the second half
“The one thing we talked about was that we were shooting the ball well, but we wanted to make sure that we got the shots we wanted as opposed to the ones they wanted to take. I thought we did a much better job of passing around the defense in the second half as opposed to handing it to them in the first half.”
On utilizing a 10-man rotation
“I hope we can stay with it, because I think we can wear teams down that way.”
Shannon Scott, senior guard
On the depth of the bench
“Playing ten guys is really an advantage for us. I can speak for myself, I never got tired, and I don’t think Kam or Amir did either. Everyone always feels fresh coming on the court, and that really helps us keep up intensity on both ends.”
On finding the open man en route to his career-high 14 assists
“I just have so many weapons around me it makes the game a lot easier. Kam came in and played great, along with Amir, Sam, D’Angelo and everyone else. Having all these weapons around me elevates my game and makes it easier for me on the court.
On the difference in scoring from last year to this year
“I think everybody has the mindset this year that we aren’t going to take any plays off on the offensive end. We’ve played so hard on defense the past couple years that we had almost forgotten about offense. Now, when we get the ball, we’re going to attack every time.”
Amir Williams, senior forward
On switching to the zone defense this year
“It sure makes the game a lot easier. Not just for me, but for the guards and wings as well. We have so much length and quickness on defense. It allows us to attack our opponents better than last year. We have guys doing a great job of covering the gaps, and we’re definitely still working out the kinks, but so far it’s been working very well for us.”
Kam Williams, redshirt freshman guard
On his scoring so far this season
“When I get in the gym, I make sure I take game shots. If I take all my game shots in practice, it’s easy come game time because I’m used to taking those shots. From elevation to release, it felt natural.”
Steve Wojciechowski, Marquette head coach
On Ohio State’s versatility
“They are an outstanding offensive team and we knew that coming into the game. They presented a number of difficulties to defend because they have guys with the ability to score from all five positions.”
On Marquette’s transition defense
“I thought our transition defense was not near where it needed to be. The times where we were able to get them in the half court, we did a decent job. They got a lot of easy baskets in transition and open shots. I thought that was a big key to the game: our transition defense was not where it needed to be.”
On facing a Buckeye team with a 10-man roster
“In order to beat a team like Ohio State you have to have max effort for 40 minutes. Right now, with where we are with our roster, we don’t have the ability to play ten guys. It is what it is. You have to grind it out to beat a team the quality of Ohio State and we weren’t able to do that to the level we needed to.”
On Marquette’s shot quality vs. the Buckeye defense
“When we got penetration on either the pass or the dribble we got quality shots. Those quick shots, early in the shot clock without moving the ball, I thought those weren’t the type of shots we needed to take. When we were patient, we got good shots.”
