Georgia Tech Head Coach Josh Pastner
Opening Statement:
“Good win, really good first half. I got great respect for coach Hill at UT-Rio Grande Valley. They play a great style, and they’ve got good players. They’re well-coached. For the first half, we had a good defensive performance. We really guarded in the second half. There was obviously a little bit of a letdown, which is also a credit to coach Hill and his team. They made some shots and that’s part of our team, we want to play two halves, put two good halves together. First half defensively – which we are going to hang our hat on the defensive end – we were really, really good. We really moved the ball – 11 assists on 14 made field goals in the first half. We ended up with 16 assists on 22 made field goals. Some good production and a good win. All wins are great.”
On Curtis Haywood II and his performance tonight:
“Curt’s been really good. He helped us get the lead in the first half with his play through defensively and then, obviously, he made some of those threes. He’s playing at a high level right now. He’s long and he’s got really good reaction to the passing lanes. And he’s a smart defender too. Knows how to play the right way, defensively.”
On Michael Devoe’s potential:
“Yep, Michael’s getting better. The more time he gets, the better he is going to be. You know, he had five assists tonight and he’s got a good feel for the game. He’s got to continue to be better defensively but that will come with continued time. He’s going to be a really good player for us.”
On Georgia Tech’s three-point shooting:
“Well, I loved it in the first half and in the second half it wasn’t real good. Now, we had some open looks but I didn’t think we had the same energy in the second half so the ball didn’t move with the same energy. We’re going to live by our threes. For the most part, I thought we had open threes. We made one or two we could have passed up. You know, the second half, I guess we were 0-8 or 1-11 from three in the second half, 5-10 in the first [half]. We had some open looks, feet set, guys were open. They just have to stick it.
On team’s energy in the game:
“There wasn’t a lot of energy in the second half, but that’s not an excuse. I tell our guys all the time, our energy’s got to come internally. Everything’s got to be self-motivated. We can’t rely on anybody else. Everything’s got to be internally driven, self-motivated. It’s got to come from within. If we’re relying on other people to give us energy, it’s not working. We can’t survive that way.”
UTRGV Head Coach Lew Hill
Opening Statement:
“I thought Josh [Pastner] had his team really prepared to play. They came out, confused our guys with the zone and man, changing defenses on us. I thought they did a really excellent job of moving the ball. I take my hat off to them and wish Josh good luck and the team good luck this year. But they did a good job today.”
On the team’s scoring drought over the middle of the game:
“The last few games, we haven’t been doing a good job of shooting the ball since we’ve been on the road. We’ve got to make the extra pass; we’ve got to be ready to shoot. Obviously, we shoot the ball a lot better than this, but we just haven’t been shooting the ball well. It’s just one of those things where we’ve got to get our guys to get their confidence back.”
On UTRGV’s full-court press to start the second half and the effect it had:
“I think it upped our energy. It upped our energy. That’s how we play, we like to match up and change defenses. I thought it got us going. We had a few choice words at halftime as well, but I think they came out well in the second half. I think we outscored [Georgia Tech] in the second half, but we dug ourselves a hole. The last two games we’ve done this and came out in the second half and played like we’re supposed to. So we’ve got to come out from the beginning.”
On Georgia Tech’s help defense on penetration and its effectiveness:
“When we started moving the ball, we were really doing a good job and that’s when we started scoring better. We were driving, coming in on two feet and shot faking, getting to the free-throw line, driving and kicking. Before, we were trying to take off on one foot and they’re too long and the length bothered us with their shot-blockers. So you have to drive in there and shot faked, and then move the ball and that’s how you get wide-open looks.”
On Georgia Tech’s Curtis Haywood II:
“He’s good. I’ve known him a while, he’s from Oklahoma. I’ve always thought he was a good, underrated player. Solid defender, really can shoot the ball, strong heady player. He did a good job tonight.”
