Jan. 21, 2007
– Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt
Opening Statement — “North Carolina just outplayed us tonight. They were much more physical than we were, and from the opening tip they just took it to us the whole night.”
On the impact of North Carolina’s fresh players — “We played quite a few guys also. I don’t think it had much of an impact. I thought their intensity level had a greater impact on the game in terms of how much harder they played than us.”
On Georgia Tech guard Javaris Crittenton — “He’s a very very competitive kid, and that’s one of the reasons he’s going to be a great player. Maybe at times tonight his competitiveness got the best of him trying to force some things; but he’ll learn from this, and he’ll get better, and he’ll help this team do some great things by the end of the year.”
On the importance of getting a road win for the team — “We looked at it as we had a great opportunity tonight to put ourselves in a good position. We let it slip and now we have to start preparing for Maryland.”
On extending the pressure in the second half — “We had to because we were down and they were comfortable with the ball. We had to do something to shake things up. We got a couple turnovers out of it, but we just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight, a combination of their defense and us just not shooting the ball well.”
North Carolina head coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement — “Well we are always happy to get an ACC win, but I told Paul [Hewitt] that this was an ugly, sloppy, bad game in some ways for both teams. I think [Georgia Tech] missed a bunch of shots that they would normally make. At the end of the first half we had four turnovers out of the last six possessions and two of them were on a break. We should have had an even better working margin than the 11 points, but still in the ACC you better be awfully happy about winning the game and that’s the way we feel. I thought Tyler [Hansbrough] getting to the free throw line, and I fell awfully comfortable when he steps up there, and he shot a great percentage for us his entire career. I felt good about that. We had too many turnovers: 12 turnovers in the first half and 19 the second half. It was not bad the second half in fact. We had three or four of them in the last three or four mintues, and we just got sloppy. Thaddeus Young, you saw tonight why I recruited him so hard. Anthony Morrow, a youngster from Charlotte, making 3s like he did too. I do really like Georgia Tech’s club, and I have a great deal of respect for Paul [Hewitt] and the job he does.”
On UNC”s Defensive Play — “I was not that displeased at all in the first half with what we did defensively. We came up with some steals. They shot 34 percent. I felt good about that if you take away Quentin [Thomas] drives in there and hands it back to Brandan [Wright] almost a hand off, and he fumbles it out of bounds. We mess up a 3-on-1 fast break. We call a set play and the ball slips out of Reyshawn [Terry]’s hand and almost goes over top of the backboard. In the first half, the only difficult thing was just the turnovers, but I was pleased with what we had done defensively. In the second half, I think we allowed [Georgia Tech] to penetrate the lane way too much and didn’t stay in front of our man. Still, it’s the ACC.”
On winning an ugly, sloppy game — “I think during the course of the year you have to win some like that if you want to have a great year. I’m not happy about it. I tell the kids I enjoy this one until midnight, and then I’ll start thinking about the next one. There will be some thoughts in there about how sloppy and ugly it is. I do think even teams that I’ve had that were really really good, and I think this team has a chance to be really really good, has had some games like this too.”
