Shannon Scott and the rest of his teammates gathered at Ohio State head coach Thad Matta's house Sunday to watch the NCAA tournament selection show. After it had aired for roughly 30 minutes, Scott started to feel a bit uneasy.
"We were kind of nervous because we didn’t see our name for a while so we didn’t know what was going on," Scott said. "Once we saw our name we were happy, though.”
The Buckeyes were one of the final teams to flash across the screen during the revealing process and, when they finally did, they found themselves as the No. 10 seed in the West Region. Ohio State's first opponent will be seventh-seeded Virginia Commonwealth. The game will tip-off approximately 4:40 p.m. ET in Portland.
"I’m sure I speak for Shannon too when I say we’re ecstatic and we’re excited," senior forward Sam Thompson said. "This is the best time of the year. This is what we came to Ohio State to do is play in the NCAA tournament and have a chance to compete in the month of March. We’re gonna get ready for it.”
The Buckeyes will certainly have their hands full. VCU is one of the more dynamic teams in the country featuring it's famed 'Havoc' defense which is a full-court, pressuring trap that wears opponents down.
It's not something Ohio State sees every day in the rugged Big Ten.
"Obviously you know the reputation of the pressing and the trapping and shooting a ton of 3s, I think 40 percent of their shots are 3s," Matta said. "We’re downloading everything now, we’ll meet as a team here and take a look at some things and get ready to roll.”
If the Buckeyes aren't ready to play Thursday night it'll be a long flight back to Columbus for them and a bitter end to what has been an up-and-down season to this point to say the least.
Thankfully for Ohio State, it still has time to salvage the season and that begins Thursday against the Rams.
"We remember the feeling of cruising through the bracket, we remember the feeling of hitting back-to-back game-winners our sophomore year and really making a deep run. Then, we compare that to how we felt last year getting bounced in the first round," Thompson said. "We obviously want to advance deep into the tournament, keep going as long as we can for our careers. We think that we have the team to do it, we have the experience and we have all the pieces. We just have to put them together.”
