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The junior from Alpharetta, Georgia will play a pivotal role for the Buckeyes this season in their hopes to better their Elite Eight run last season. Shannon Scott has had the luxury of now three years of learning and absorbing from Aaron Craft, and in that time the Buckeyes have reached a Final Four and Elite Eight. The Buckeyes will be looking to better both of those runs this year, and Scott should be the first man off the bench for the Buckeyes.
Previous Season Stats: 4.9 PPG, 3.8 APG, 2.8 RPG, 1.7 SPG, 20.9 MPG, 40.8 FG%
A Look Back:
In his second year in Columbus, Shannon Scott started to find his game for the Buckeyes. Not the flashy scorer that someone like Trey Burke is (who the Buckeyes passed over in favor of Scott), Shannon does most of his work on the defensive end. Ohio State had the luxury of bring Scott of the bench, mainly when trying to grab Aaron Craft a few minutes of rest. When the Buckeyes seemed to be at their best was when both Scott and Craft were out on the floor, making it very difficult for opposing offenses to even breathe on the perimeter, let alone run any offense. In just under 21 minutes per game, Scott finished second on the team in steals (63) and assists (142). There was two games that saw Scott dish out 10 assists, the most notable of them being the 2nd Round NCAA Tournament matchup against Iona. The other game where Scott registered 10 assists was against UMKC in the early season, which turned out to be his first double-double as he added 10 points.
With the good play that Scott exhibited, there was also some shaky moments. Most notably, the brainfart at the end of the Michigan State game where he heaved up an ugly three-pointer late. Scott looked to have been thinking a foul was coming, but it never did and the Spartans claimed victory in East Lansing. The other poor performance came against Duke at Cameron Indoor, where Scott only hit one of the eight shots that he took, and committed a turnover with under a minute to go.
Outlook For 2013-14:
With four of the five starters from last year returning this year for the Buckeyes, it looks as if Scott's role will again be to be the sixth-man off the bench. Last year saw Scott's minutes nearly double from 10.6 MPG in his freshman season to 20.9 MPG in 2012-13. While we won't see his minutes double again this year, he should see another increase in his floor time. After seeing the success the Buckeyes had during their late season run to get to the Elite Eight, it wouldn't be surprising to see a lot of Scott and Craft on the floor together to wreak havoc for opposing offenses. Increased minutes will help Scott to take more of a leadership role and ready him for next year when the team is his to run with Craft moving on.
Best Case Scenario:
Scott continues to play the solid defense that he did last year and shows some improved offense this year. Some steadier shooting than last year helps Scott to become more an offensive threat, averaging close to 10 PPG, and finding some success from behind the three-point line and at the charity stripe. Hopefully some blow-by GIFs are created with the tremendous speed that we know that Scott possesses. Scott emerges as one of the nation's best in steals and with Craft already up there, we see the two form a suffocating perimeter defense which helps lead the Buckeyes to a Big Ten title and high seed in the tournament.
Worst Case Scenario:
Too many instances where Scott enters the game is to relieve foul trouble for Aaron Craft, which puts a damper on the possible defensive combination of the two. We see that not much improvement has been made in Scott's offensive game, and the Buckeyes suffer a couple loses due to late game free throw shooting woes.