Jan. 7, 2012

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Fran McCaffery Postgame Quotes

Ohio State Head Coach Thad Matta

Postgame Quotes

What does it say about the depth that you have, that William Buford can go 0 for 10 and you can still go into the locker room with a nine-point lead?
Well, you know, once again when we get on the road something happens and we get in foul trouble. I thought Shannon [Scott] came in and gave us good minutes and Sam [Thompson] came in, JD [Weatherspoon] did a great job.  The thing as a coach that you look to see with the depth is those guys had been working extremely hard in practice and to get in there and contribute the way that they did, you know it's exciting. Hopefully we can continue to build because we're going to have guys that have nights like that and if we can have a boost off them it's that much more advantageous for us.

You've talked about Shannon [Scott] just kind of relaxing a little bit and letting it go; where is he in that progress and what did you think of him doing that..?
I thought today he was really, really effective on both sides of the ball. We all need moments like that.  To Shannon's credit he has practiced as well as I've seen him in his time at Ohio State and probably dating back to right after Christmas. To see him go out and play at the level that we've played today was exciting and I think it definitely gives us an edge.

In the first six minutes of the second half, that's about as good of a stretch as you've had...
Yeah, we made some shots, and it's like I told Lenzelle [Smith] and Deshaun [Thomas] at halftime, they had to sit the majority of the first half.  I said, "Look, don't even think about scoring, don't even think about it.  All I need you to do is play defense."  And they went out and hit three three's.  So, maybe I'll keep them in that mindset. That was a good boost for us, I still think our defense kind of got us going and generated some offense for us and were able to convert.