Dec. 31, 2010
– HEAD COACH Paul Hewitt
Opening statement
“The first play of the second half, they had the layup, Daniel [Miller] had a foul and put him on the line, just the opposite of what he did in the first half where he let him push him out of the way and score the easy bucket. Defensively we were better, a lot smarter, not committing as much on the strong side and allowing them to kick out threes; we made them finish at the rim. Until the very end of the half, I thought that we did a very nice job of defending the three point line in the second half.”
On making free throws at the end of the game
“It is nice to know that we have the right guys on the foul line. But I don’t want to say anything. It is like a no-hitter you don’t want to talk about it.”
On Kammeon Holsey’s contribution
“His knee is getting there. He still has some days where he has to step out of practice because it is just so sore. But Richard Stewart has done a great job with him and he still is faithful and comes to get treatment. We felt like we needed someone to give us more of a scoring punch around the basket and he did that today. There are still some times defensively where he does some inexplicable things. He will just stop, run and go chase the ball and trap but he is going to be a good player he just needs to get healthy, understand what we need to do defensively and the rest will be easy for him.”
Kammeon Holsey on his play
“I’ve been practicing really well this past week and getting a better understanding of the game and what coach wants me to do on defense. I am looking to my guards and just listening to the upperclassmen to tell me what I am supposed to be doing. I would say that I was aggressive. One thing was that I was taking my time and being patient and letting the game come to me. I was taking it one step at a time, playing hard and doing what I was supposed to do and then the other stuff will come.”
Glen Rice, Jr. on his four three-point shots
“I’ve been working hard in practice on getting my footwork right so it can translate into the game and I think it worked.”
Iman Shumpert on the changes made in the second half
“We were just putting the emphasis on not letting them get anything easy in the second half. They run a ton of plays so we wanted to try to keep them out of it. We have to come out and play harder from the get go.”
Shumpert on the team making foul shots
“I think it was a mental thing and now that we have started making free throws early on it is not even in our minds anymore. We just step up and knock them down.”
Shumpert on his first half play and what he did to improve it
“I have always tried to do everything that I can to help the team but, if my shots are not falling and I am not the one shooting I am going to put my trust in my teammates to shoot. If he missed I’m going to go up there and clean it up. It wasn’t a matter of me being more aggressive, it was more a matter of me not taking as many shots and focusing on getting a better shot for another teammate.”
MERCER HEAD COACH BOB HOFFMAN
Opening Statement
“The important thing today for me was our young men’s ability to compete. I’m real proud of our guys; not happy with the loss. They have given us everything that they can give us the last four weeks and we have been right there and just have not been able to get the fruits of our labor. But I have a every confidence that these guys are going to get a chance to experience some fun things in the next 18 games.”
On if his team was tired in the second half after playing yesterday
“I don’t want to take anything away from anyone, I’ve never been one to take steps to say stuff like that. I mean, I ran out of gas coming up the stairs. We were tired, but we had a chance to win if we could have stolen one to a couple of possessions here or there and that is why I am saying I am so proud of my guys. Coach Hewitt’s club found ways to get the ball in the hole. When Shumpert got into foul trouble in the first half it gave us an opportunity to get separation, and he came back like a man possessed, in a good way, in the second half and made play after play and he is a tremendous player. We were able to get into it for a few minutes in the first half, and got some charges on him and in the second half he was able to get around us. He got some offensive boards that were huge that he got that were big momentum plays in the outcome of the second half. In general, the fact of the matter is, yes. But is it the reason Georgia Tech won? No, in my estimation. These guys, we have lost three games in the last two weeks to really good teams, and we beat Navy at home prior to that. I think we are finding who we are, and we are going to continue to build on that, and we have huge games starting Monday and Wednesday against East Tennessee State who can really play. Our league is good. We have had all kinds of wins outside of the conference, maybe as many as anyone in the country that is considered a mid-major. We have great coaches in our leagues, we have great teams, and it continues to get better every year, and I think you are seeing that right now.”
On what his team can learn from playing a touch out-of-conference schedule
“You know how to play, and you know what is going to happen. There is nothing that we are going to see Monday that we haven’t seen in the schedule we have had. We have never shied away from playing people, we have played a tough schedule.”
On Kammeon Holsey
“He played with a lot of energy today. The scouting report, we got yesterday about 4:30. I thought they did a really good job starting to switch screens, he was part of that. They would switch him in to be a big, and we had a harder time turning the corners and getting extra plays and he was a huge element in that playing great defense today. I watched him on tape, but I thought he had more energy, I thought he looked really active, looked excited, and I thought he helped make a difference in the game today.”
