Nov. 18, 2003
– Lafayette Head Coach Jessie Evans
“I thought they executed their game plan really well. We knew we were undermanned, but we had to be more conservative with our offense. Defensively, I thought we did a poor job on the perimeter in handling their penetration. You cannot allow that, and once they penetrated, our big guys did not get to the drivers quick enough and make the ref make decisions. Either you’re going to take the charge or you’re going for the block. We surrendered, and you can’t do that.
“I did not see a whole bunch of bright spots, obviously. For the most part, I thought we competed, but we didn’t compete long enough. We just did not have enough sustained effort. The critical thing is that we’ve got to get better defensively. And every team is going to come at us like that. They know we have a couple of perimeter shooters who can really shoot the basketball, but they can’t do it alone. We have to play as a team. Tonight I thought we got impatient, and we took shots with hands in our faces. Once we did that, we didn’t rebound the basketball, so there really was nothing that I could point my finger at right now and say I was pleased with.
Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt
“It’s always nice to get that first win. I thought we did the things we needed to do. Tony McHenry set the tone early on Brady Boyd. A lot was said about them being short-handed, and then I watched the Mississippi State tape from last year, and Brad Boyd single-handedly beat Mississippi State. Needless to say, I was a little worried about how we were going to defend him, and I thought Tony did an unbelievable job setting the tone. We were determined to make him take tough shots, but I think Tony McHenry set the tone defensively.
“We’re unproven in the frontcourt, but we’ve got good players. We’ll be better when Luke plays up to his potential-I got on him a little in the first half-and when Theo (Tarver) is back healthy. We’ve got good players, and we’re a veteran team now.
“When you force people to shoot 27 percent, then you’re going to be able to take advantage of that. You gain momentum when you get stops. We try to chart on the bench how many times we get three stops in a row. When you get that momentum from guarding and rebounding, it’s going to translate into some good offense. At one point, we got stops on 15 of 17 possessions.
“I think we could have taken a little better care of the basketball, but other than that I thought the guys moved the ball pretty well and got good looks.
[On Clarence Moore’s impact] “At the end of the half, I wasn’t pleased with how we closed. I thought we showed some of that immaturity that we showed at times last year. He was the one guy that jumped up and chewed on a couple of guys on the way to the locker room. You miss a guy like that who has natural leadership instincts. He may not show up on the stat sheet, but he’s going to show up on our team.”
