March 8, 2003
Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt
“I thought the big key to this game was the defensive effort after the first 10 minutes of the game. In the first 10 minutes, they scored way too easily. They were driving and doing everything they wanted to do, but after those first 10 minutes, we really tightened it up. I think we made another step forward in terms of ball movement and we kept getting good looks. To hold Ed Scott to 2-for-15 and Chey Christie 4-for-13, that’s what you’ve got to do this time of the year. Shots don’t fall all the time, so you’ve got to defend and rebound and play tough basketball.
“Coach Warren, who did the scouting report, stressed gang rebounding. It was important for our guards to get down below the foul line and really dig out some of those rebounds.
“Larry’s got his team playing very, very hard. They had some guys who didn’t have their better days, but they played hard all the time. They kept coming after us and kept battling, but our defensive effort was outstanding. Guys like Isma’il Muhammad and Anthony McHenry came off the bench and gave us a big lift, and we might have found something with Theodis Tarver in terms of defensive presence. He’s a very good shot blocker and he moves his feet well.
“Scott is such a good scorer that our thing was just to make him work for everything. Up until about the 12 minute mark of the second half, we wanted to pick him up full court and make him work to even get a touch. When we got in foul trouble early in the second half, we had to take it off because we couldn’t have him marching to the line. He’s too good a foul shooter.
“I think we’re doing a little better job of running the offense through these three guys (Bosh, Lewis, Elder) because they’re unselfish players. We feel like if they don’t have a shot, that means someone else is going to be open because they draw so much attention. I’ll live with the looks Marvin got today, and these two guys (Elder and Bosh) had it going.
Clemson head coach Larry Shyatt
“I saw the game in two cycles. In the first half we controlled the tempo. On the other hand, we missed four crib shots that could have staked us out to a bigger margin. Those are the kind of shots you have to make when you are an average shooting team.”
“In the second half Georgia Tech took control of the game in a most disturbing way-on the offensive glass. Rebounding should not be 45-31 in favor of Georgia Tech. If we are going to make a run we must get that corrected.”
“On our worst of shooting nights and as ugly as it was we were still only down 51-46 and had three chances to get closer. We just simply could not a shot to get us closer. Ed Nelson’s three-point play was certainly a big play.
“We had our chance to control our own destiny. Now we will have to wait to let someone else decide whether we are 6th, 7th or 8th next week.”
Note: Clemson forward Olu Babalola scored a career-high 17 points on a career best 7-9 shooting. Clemson is now 13-1 this year when it scores at least 70 points and 2-11 when it scores under 70 points.
