Nov. 14, 2011
Recap | Box Score | AP Photo Gallery
– GEORGIA TECH COACH Brian Gregory
Opening Statement
Again, if right now our focus is to continue to build our identity, we are taking some steps in terms of creating that on the defensive end and on the glass. I thought our half court defense was exceptional tonight; we are getting better at that. You are playing teams that are going to make some shots but if you take away their points off of our turnovers in transition, we held them to probably under 30 percent from the field. We are getting better at that and rebounding extremely well. Sixteen offensive rebounds, 40-21 overall. Now we just need to play with a little greater poise on offense, keep getting the ball inside, we did a much better job in the second half and when we do that a lot of good things happen. We get quality shots shooting 53 percent, so we just have to keep getting better. Guys have to feel good about these first two games. We have a good test coming up in our tournament in Charleston.
On Daniel Miller and Kammeon Holsey
Daniel is playing exceptionally well for us right now. His activity level has been great and Kam had a tremendous second half just being active. We didn’t play with the composure that we needed to in the first half. We were in some wrong spots in terms of cutting and holding and not being able to create the space to get some baskets. In the second half, Kam did a great job of that with Daniel anchoring the post and Kam playing off of that. I thought that was the difference in the game. Being able to get those guys touches and play off the post feeds. The good thing is that they are both sophomores. But the bad thing from them is that I am now going to demand that type of production every game.
On the guard play
Our guards, what we need to be able to do is catch the ball, square up, rip the ball through, and look inside. We have to get better at that; there is no question about that. If that is not there we are going to have to be able to reverse the ball or use the dribble to get a better passing angle. I think one time we did that, Jason did a great job of that on a couple of occasions. To be honest with you that is new, to feed the post and get the ball to the inside and play off these guys. It is going to take a while. We want to do that man or zone. Today we faced that match up, you pick `em zone, where they go with some cutters and switch which makes it harder to read and you need even more poise. When we reverse the ball and made three or four passes we were able to get some quality looks and you need to understand that you have to break down the defense to be successful.
On the team’s practice level
They practice well. Our team did a really good job of focusing in the last day and a half to get ready for this game. That doesn’t always guarantee that you play well, but if you don’t practice well and you aren’t focused on the prep that almost guarantees you that you won’t play well. So, that is a habit as well for us that we need to start developing.
DELAWARE STATE COACH GREG JACKSON
Opening Statement:
I thought we came in with a great game plan. I thought we kept them off balance throughout most of the game. They wore us down towards the end of the second half. We’ll have a very good basketball team in time. We came here with nine new freshmen, and you never know what to expect with that many new players. I felt that Tech did a better job down the stretch of winning this basketball game.
On the size of Tech’s players:
Their players were so big. Talent means a lot, but they were always right over top of us. Hopefully, we’ll be that big one day, but right now we just have to work with what we have. They did an excellent job of exploiting our weakness and got the ball inside. We tried to push it up and give them a lot of different looks. We played a lot of different zone and man-to-man combinations to try to keep them off balance. But like I said, they were just too big for us inside.
On forcing turnovers through heavy pressure:
When you play that way, you tend to run out of gas. We have nine freshmen who are playing in a whole new level. They just seemed to run out of gas with about ten minutes left.
