Dec. 29, 2009
– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Paul Hewitt
Opening Statement
“I’m not sure what to say about the turnovers. We have been talking since the Florida State game to just get these next two wins to get to ten wins into the New Year. We’ve done that, so now let’s get ready for Charlotte.”
On being satisfied at all of the play of his new starting lineup:
“At times we looked really sharp, especially in the first four or five minutes. We were making hard cuts to the basket, moving the ball well and taking great shots. Then, we just went into a funk and got off task. They got after us. They scored 19 points in a four-minute stretch. We ended up closing the game out really well. Nick Foreman did a great job. I keep scratching my head at trying to find ways to get that guy into the game. He does what we want.”
On Gani Lawal’s play the last three games:
“I’m concerned we’re not getting him more shots. He’s really improved his free throw area shooting. His offensive game is getting better. He’s a better free throw shooter and his jumper from 15-feet is improving. We have to do a better job of getting him the ball.”
On the depth of the bench:
“I think we have a lot of bodies. I keep saying that a deep bench is one that you keep getting production out of and also in terms of straight out effort. If you run the floor, you’re going to get easy shots. People can talk about offense all they want, the bottom line is that if you outrun people and get easy shots in transition, you don’t have to run plays. That’s how I measure depth; the effort and the production that effort brings.”
On where the team is at going into the bulk of ACC play:
“We know as a group what we have to do. I think that has been established by previous groups, going all the way back to Puerto Rico where we saw the good and the bad. Obviously we need to stick with the good.”
On Iman Shumpert’s health:
“The plan now is that he will play against Charlotte. How much, I don’t know, but again that’s the plan. It will all depend on how he feels.”
WINSTON-SALEM STATE HEAD COACH BOBBY COLLINS
Opening Statement
“This is probably one of the toughest interviews because, like I just told my team, it was one of the toughest games I have ever had to coach mainly because of a lack of discipline. 31 turnovers, you aren’t going to beat very many teams or even give yourself a chance to be in games with 31 turnovers. I thought their pressure was mediocre, and I don’t think it really bothered us. We just didn’t make good decisions with the basketball. I am very disturbed by that. With the turnovers, and then getting outrebounded by 20, we didn’t give ourselves a chance today. I don’t know if it affected the way we started the game, but I thought that we were very flat in the beginning. We started another point guard who hadn’t played a lot this year mainly because of discipline reasons and he kind of got us off to a bad start with the turnovers.”
On Georgia Tech’s Inside Play
“Initially I didn’t think they had size advantage. Corey [Morris] is 6’10”, 260 [pounds], and Paul [Davis] is 6’10”, 190 [pounds] and is very athletic. They are very talented, they are a little more talented than my bigs are, but I thought that we matched up well with them to a certain extent. When Brian Fisher for us doesn’t shoot the ball well, we struggle. He has got to do a better job of finding other ways to score, and finding other ways to help our team.”
On Ambitious Opening Schedule
“Well, ambitious is very kind. We started the season out in the Oregon tournament, and that Oregon tournament kind of prepared us for Wake Forest. It prepared us for UNC-Charlotte. It prepared us for Maryland. It prepared us for Georgia Tech, to a certain extent, knowing what to expect.”
On Defending Inside
“Corey Morris has done a tremendous job defending the post play. I didn’t think that their bigs hurt us that much today. I thought that they played an all-around game. I thought that the turnovers are what hurt us. I thought that if we could get them into a half court game, we could have given ourselves a chance but we didn’t get that opportunity because we turned it over before we could get into it.”
On Georgia Tech’s Turnovers
“They obviously gave us some opportunities too. They had 24 turnovers, and I am sure Coach [Hewitt] is not happy about that. And it wasn’t so much about our pressure. We had moments where we were able to get into our pressure but a lot of the time they didn’t make good decisions with the ball. But they capitalized off of half the turnovers that we had, and we didn’t capitalize on most of the turnovers that they had.”
