Jan. 28, 2007
– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Paul Hewitt
“We’re obviously disappointed that we lost the game, but Virginia Tech played very well. Offensively, in the first half I thought we had a lot of good looks, but we just couldn’t knock shots down. That was pretty much the theme throughout the game. But give them credit. Their veteran guards controlled the tempo. Those two guys (Dowell and Gordon) came up with 15 and four turnovers and just a lot of great plays to create easy scores for them.
[Thaddeus Young] “Obviously today wasn’t one of his better offensive days. I thought he had some pretty good looks that he normally knocks down. That’s one thing about shooting, you can’t explain it. I thought he got some decent looks, as well as the rest of our guys, but they just didn’t go down for us.
“They played exceptionally well, especially those two kids. Obviously we could have defended better. There were some little things, rotations that we could have made. But at some point you give them credit. They made some pretty good plays out there.
[No names on jerseys] “It’s a case of guys trying so hard. I used to work for a guy, Nick Macarchuk, who always said, Just get yourself lost in the game. Don’t worry about anything other than just playing the game – getting some rebounds, getting some steals, letting things kind of come to you. I was just trying to make that point to the guys. Just worry about playing. Play for playing’s sake and let’s things happen. There’s always something you can do. Whether you’re scoring points or not, there’s always something you can do to help your team be successful. This is a good group of guys. They try hard and they work hard. I think sometimes we might get a little caught up if our individual game isn’t going right. It’s not a selfish team, it’s just a team that’s got to mature.
Again, you’ve got to give them credit. They made plays when we made our run at them. Mario had that steal and the charge – it was obvious, he just got a little overexcited about getting to the basket – at 47-43, and from that point they steadied themselves.
VIRGINAI TECH HEAD COACH SETH GREENBERG
Opening Comment — “That was just a great team win for our basketball team. We had to come on the road, maintain our composure and compete defensively. Early on, I didn’t think that we’d ever get a rebound, but we resolved that a little bit in the second half. We got so many contributions. A.D. Vassallo played with great poise, great purpose and toughness and helped us rebound the ball while Jamon Gordon had about as good a five-point game as I’ve ever seen. We’ve got a great security blanket. With those two guards, Linus doesn’t have it any better than I have it. They are just really good players. They are really good, tough, experienced, mature, winning players. They’ve got great poise, confidence, toughness, and they play off each other. We were extremely unselfish. Our spacing was good. I thought that Coleman Collins did a terrific job of defending the post until the very very end. He was very conscious of really trying to defend Dickey. When he gets shots, he usually makes shot. So it was just a great team win. To win on the road against a team like Georgia Tech really gives us something to build on. There is a lot of basketball still to be played, but we are starting to play very unselfish, tough basketball and that is encouraging. We’ve got three games this week, so it doesn’t get any easier.”
How did you adjust to Georgia Tech’s size advantage? “We spent the whole week talking about getting into the guys’ bodies and checking them out. Obviously that was not time well spent during the first 16 minutes. The kid Faye is a hard block out, plus we were doubling, trying to dig balls out of the post, and rotating back to get block-outs was pretty tough for us. If you’re going to double the post, when the ball gets kicked out or shot, you’ve got to go find someone, and we didn’t do a very good job of that early on. In the second half, we did a better job. Our guards have to help us rebound, for us to be good. I thought that Jamon and A.D. came up with some big rebounds down the stretch.”
What did you do to neutralize Morrow? “We didn’t do a very good job of it. That’s a good way to guard him – put him on the bench. That guy is good. He doesn’t need much time, he uses his size to shoot over you. We tried to help off the passer when he came off those curls, and we tried to extend on the screens. He hurts you with his size, and his ability to change and get shots off. We missed him on an underneath out-of-bounds play and we were supposed to be trapping him. So we didn’t play really well that possession.”
“They’ve got so many players. We didn’t know who they were going to start. They’ve got a young team. Everybody wants things like `pick up the phone, get on the internet, etc.’ but teams develop identities, and it’s a process of developing identities. They are still a young team, but they are a very good team. We were very fortunate to win, and really fortunate to make shots. When you make shots, you win, when you don’t make shots, you don’t win.”
Nigel Munson looked like he was in over his head today — “He’s not over his head. That guy can guard. That guy that was guarding him (Mario West), can guard. West is a terrific defender. Nigel is fine. He probably should have just tried to go around the guy, but he was more concerned of getting in the offense.
“Nigel is a good player, and he will be a very good player for us. That was probably more us just not telling him to go by the guy. Mario West is just a very tough, strong, mature senior. He’s played against tough, experienced players.”
GEORGIA TECH GUARD Anthony Morrow
On this type of loss being frustrating — “We felt like it slipped through our hands. We should have taken advantage of the situation. Like Coach (Paul Hewitt) said, and what we’ve all said in the locker room, we each have to look in the mirror and see what we can do to get better for the team and turn this thing in the right direction.”
On the game — “Defensively, we made some mistakes. We pride ourselves on defense so we got on ourselves about that, but we have to stay positive. Shots are going to fall, they just didn’t today. We have to stay together. I’ve been here before. This is a grind out season in the ACC which is probably the top conference in college basketball.”
On heading to Wake Forest — “They are young, but play really hard. We have to get after them on Tuesday. It’s a situation where we have to work hard in practice, stay focused and pay attention to detail, and go in there and try and get the win.”
GEORGIA TECH FORWARD Mouhammad Faye
On his performance today — “I was just ready to bring some energy to the floor and ready to win. That’s all I wanted.”
On the offense pressing to make up for other players — “When he (Thaddeus Young) is having a rough day, we just have to keep trying to find him to get him going.”
GEORGIA TECH FORWARD Thaddeus Young
On what he thinks is wrong — “I have no idea right now. We are playing hard right now, I know that. But we are getting down and it’s hard to keep coming back. You get so tired from making that run, and then they make another run, and you have to try and keep coming back.”
On allowing a team to shoot 60 percent from the floor — “It’s some misreads and we have to play harder on defense. We’re playing hard, we just have to pick it up to another level. Obviously the other team is picking it up to another level when they play us, so we have to pick it up even higher than they do.”
On the shots not falling today — “It’s very frustrating. We have to come out next game and play harder. We played hard, and some solid defense, but we are still trailing by four points. We need to have some solid defensive possessions so we can get down the floor and get a layup.”
