Dave Butcher Quotations

It's special because very few times that I've been coaching have we been what I would say the underdog. If you told me after watching us play in November that we'd be here in March, I'd say no way.

Being here is the icing on the cake. Right now we're trying to put the cherry on top.

Before the game I told the kids if we can hang and get them to the last three minutes, I guarantee we win the ballgame. Whether or not we can do that, it's up to them.

The 3-point shooting didn't surprise us. We knew that was their strength last year and this year. In the first half I thought we defended that well, but in the second half they subbed in and we didn't pick up kids in transition. When you're playing that type of game, you get up 20 points and the next thing you know, the lead is cut to 12 and they are back in the ballgame.

On a scale one to 10, this is a 15.

We felt going in that their strength was their experience and that they are defensively sound. They have nice size inside and quickness at the guards. We knew that would be an issue; we knew we had to execute.

We actually made good decisions with the ball. We don't do that all the time. It's been an interesting year as far as some of our decision-making at the end of basketball games. I thought we did some real good things and had a lot of composure. That's been a tough one for us.

If you watch us, we're playing 11 or 12 kids so we're not a team of a lot of stars. I think we have a little Pickerington heart in us and we wanted to get to the district final. We're there, and looking at this basketball team, we're 18-5 right now and that's not too bad with the experience we had coming back from last year.

There's been a half-dozen possessions and we can be sitting here 14-1. But when we've been in close games we do not make good decisions. Game in and game out, when we handle the basketball and if we can keep our turnovers somewhere between 15 or 16 instead of 22 or 23, we can play with anybody.

I'm proud of us and to get there is a great accomplishment for our basketball team. Again, we're not a team of a lot of stars, but we do have a lot of heart and Pickerington pride.