Shannon Scott sat down for post-game interviews with bags of ice on his knees and a bag of cookies on the table in front of him.
"Y'all want a cookie? I see you looking," Scott said jokingly to the room of reporters. "You want one? You can come get one if you want."
He was just in that giving mood, apparently.
After all, he had just finished a game where he handed out a school-record 16 assists as Ohio State blew out Sacred Heart, 106-48. But even after his record-breaking performance, Scott downplayed the significance of breaking Aaron Craft's record of 15 set against George Mason in the 2011 NCAA tournament.
| Rank | Assists | Player | Opponent | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | SHANNON SCOTT | SACRED HEART | 11/23/14 |
| 2 | 15 | AARON CRAFT | GEORGE MASON | 3/20/11 |
| 3 | 14 | SHANNON SCOTT | MARQUETTE | 11/18/14 |
| 3 | 14 | CURTIS WILSON | PURDUE | 1/7/88 |
| 5 | 13 | KELVIN RAMSEY | NORTHWESTERN | 1/12/80 |
| 6 | 12 | JAMAR BUTLER | UMBC | 12/29/07 |
| 6 | 12 | SCOONIE PENN | FLORIDA A&M | 12/11/99 |
| 7 | 11 | SHANNON SCOTT | UMASS-LOWELL | 11/14/14 |
| 7 | 11 | EVAN TURNER | LIPSCOMB | 11/24/09 |
| 7 | 11 | JAMAR BUTLER | NORTHWESTERN | 1/6/08 |
| 7 | 11 | DAMON STRINGER | CCSU | 11/26/95 |
| 7 | 11 | MARK BAKER | WISCONSIN | 1/21/91 |
| 7 | 11 | CURTIS WILSON | FLORIDA INTL. | 3/4/87 |
| 7 | 11 | LARRY BOLDEN | NORTHWESTERN | 2/24/77 |
"It’s good to say that you have it, but I can’t really hold my hat on that," Scott said. "We want to win a lot more games, we can’t really focus on having a record right now. We want to get to be the best team that we can be. So we kind of put the game behind us now and get ready for the next one."
Many of Scott's passes found their way to his starting partner in the backcourt, freshman shooting guard D'Angelo Russell, who poured in a career-high 32 points for the 20th-ranked Buckeyes. He also added nine rebounds and five assists while going 12 for 21 from the field and 4 of 8 from 3-point range.
"The beginning of this game, I just tried to prep for it. I didn’t honestly know who the opponent was, just prepared the best way I could," Russell said. "And I just told myself whoever was guarding me, I was going to destroy them. So I just tried to do that and it landed good for me."
Through the season's first three games, Scott has totaled 41 assists. He entered Sunday's game leading the nation in assists per game and will continue to hold that lead after his record-setting performance.
"It’s the guys around me, honestly. It’s not like I’m making spectacular passes," Scott said. "I'm making just a simple pass and they're knocking down shots. I can't take all the credit for them, they're making shots."
As a team, Ohio State shot 56.9 percent from the floor and knocked down 10 of its 23 attempts from downtown. It was another quality offensive performance for head coach Thad Matta's team, which has started off sizzling hot.
"Shannon with 16 assists and whatever he had the other night, he’s got a great command right now just in terms of his demeanor and finding guys," Matta said. "I’m very, very pleased with his push and I think we’re helping him out in terms of our spacing and obviously guys are making shots, but that was a heck of a performance by our starting backcourt tonight.”
It was certainly Russell and Scott who guided the Buckeyes against the Pioneers, but with a 10-man rotation it could be any player on any given night. Quite the contrast from a year ago.
"I don't look at it as carry the load or what not, I just happen to be an OK scorer," Russell said. "The guys around us, everybody has that opportunity and I guess just tonight it kind of stood out, like I said. It's anybody's night, like last week it was Kam, you know what I'm saying? Next week it might be Keita. I feel like it could be anybody's night."
