Feb. 9, 2012
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery
GEORGIA TECH COACH Brian Gregory
Opening Statement
“I thought we played with pretty good energy and effort level tonight, unfortunately in the second half we were not able to control our defensive glass and in some key situations is was the difference in the game. Against NC State, even though we didn’t shoot the ball well, if you are able to control the transition and keep defending the way we did, you have a chance to be successful. The toughest kid on the court tonight was C.J. Williams, and he was the difference in the game. He took advantage of defensive mistakes, made shots, three offensive rebounds, and just did a really good job. This game reminded me very much of the Maryland game where [Sean] Mosley made the tough plays that you need guys to make. Overall it wasn’t exactly the way that we wanted to finish it and unfortunately we didn’t get the job done.”
On the shooting percentage of the guards
“We are not a great shooting team so we have to make sure that we take quality shots. I thought for the most part, every one of Mfon [Udofia]’s shots was a pretty good look. In the first half, we missed some open shots off of a lot of good ball movement and unfortunately in the second half we went away from that a little. We took some quick shots, early in the shot clock, with guys right on us. Those are bad decisions that we can’t make. It puts too much pressure on our defense. We hold the team to 40 percent shooting and outrebound them by 11, but the offense keeps putting the defense in tough situations. There was some poor shot selection today, I call that decision-making from our guards, in terms of the type of shots they are taking. We have to do a better job of that, our margin for error on offense is small; it is too hard to overcome.”
On the offensive rebounds
“Our four and five guys played a heck of a game. Those guys are getting all of those rebounds and if they didn’t get it they would tap it back because our two and three guys were back due to the transition defense. We are trying to put a greater emphasis on that. We were able to come up with some offensive rebounds from some guys that weren’t even really involved in the glass just because of the effort. The problem is, 19 offensive rebounds and only 16 second chance points. That is not good enough. Minimum you need as many second chance points as you get offensive rebounds, that means you are converting 50 percent, which isn’t great but we could have used those three extra points. We need to be a little more efficient. We got those rebounds but then we hurried the second shot. You can’t do that. It is a part of the growing process, trying to play with a little more poise. We struggled with that at times. Especially when you don’t shoot the ball well because now you want to hurry and make up for the missed shot and you can’t do that.”
On Kammeon Holsey
“I don’t think it was overall his best game this year. I thought he did a lot of good things and it is good to see him knock down those free throws, he has been working hard at that. But one thing is he had four turnovers, and when your starting four-man has one fourth of your turnovers you have to do a better job at taking care of the ball.”
On missing Nate Hicks
“I think two things hurt us, Nate’s length, he was very effective at NC State when we played there, and now Kammeon [Holsey] played 31 minutes and Daniel [Miller] played 35 minutes. Those are probably too many minutes but those guys did a good job. The second thing was, Julian [Royal] has been gone the last few days, he had a death in his family, and he was with his family and just got back late this afternoon. He was understandably not as efficient as he has been. I give him credit because he kept fighting and kept trying to do it, he was just drained. I appreciate both his and his family’s sacrifice for the team. Those two things obviously had an impact. I thought our other big guys responded well, Nick [Forman] gave us a couple good minutes, but it is what it is. Those things occur during the year. Nate is going to be out at least a couple of weeks and we are going to have to figure some things out and we have six days to do that.”
NC STATE COACH MARK GOTTFRIED
Opening Statement
“It’s a good team win. I like our effort defensively. In the first half they killed us on the backboard and I think we adjusted in the second half and rebounded better and had much better defensive stops. We’ve got a very unselfish team. Shot distribution night in and night out is pretty even and that’s something that’s been really good for our team. Good win for our program.”
On the first half
“I’ll say this about the first half. We started slow but what was good for our team was we didn’t get down, and we kept slugging and we kept fighting and we got it back to where we took the lead and we had a nice finish to the half. That was good for our team because we certainly weren’t playing well early. We weren’t rebounding well at all. Then we had a great start to the second half. The second half we had a great start coming out of the locker room and that was big for us.”
On NC State’s defensive play
“The point of emphasis for us was they came to our place and played really well. They played really well and scored 80-something points and beat us. That one hurt us. We felt like we were a lot better than that defensively. I think you could even tell the last couple of days of practice our guys were zeroed in here. They were locked in pretty good. They have some pride that we’re going to come over here and get this one back. So defensively much better tonight for us than the first time we played them.”
On C.J. Leslie’s back injury
“The last couple of days it was really bothering him, and I think he just tweaked it a little bit. I think he was a little nervous that it was going to tighten up and it didn’t thank goodness. I think with stuff like that is nice to have a break in here and I think it’s going to be good for our team.”
On Scott Wood’s consecutive free throw streak broken
“It’s interesting, I thought when he made that first one I could see him running down the floor and he was trying to smile and laugh it off. I knew it hurt it though. It hurt him with the streak that he’s had and then I thought it got in his mind just a hair. It was nice to get that over with. He’s a great, great shooter. A great foul shooter and I think that he’ll start another streak and it’ll go for a good long time.”
