Nov. 29, 2011
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– GEORGIA TECH COACH Brian Gregory
Opening Statement
“Give Northwestern credit. They came out and hit us pretty good. But I thought our guys responded pretty well in the last 12 minutes of that first half and played pretty good basketball, defended pretty well and did a good job of taking care of the basketball. In the second half, they started out with a couple quick three’s and a couple missed coverages, but give them credit. If you make mistakes, they make you pay. The one thing that was a constant during the entire game, was our inability in the one-on-one situation to defend the basketball. We’ve got to get better at that and show a greater pride in being able to defend the dribble.”
On Northwestern’s style
“Good players make it difficult to defend. (John) Shurna and (Drew) Crawford are very good players. What ends up happening, is because they have you stretched it, if you make a mistake, they’re able to drive the ball to the basket. The thing they did today, which they’re getting better at, is they were able to throw the ball into their five-man and score in the post. Usually if you play Northwestern and you hold them to five three-pointers, you have a chance to win the game. Unfortunately we weren’t able to guard the basketball. Our offense helped their offense. You can’t give them those baskets. They scored 16 points off turnovers. That’s too many. You just can’t give them those easy ones.”
“Kam (Holsey) looked a little out of sorts and he didn’t play as well as he has been. We need Jason (Morrs) and Kam and Daniel (Miller), Mfon (Udofia) and Glen (Rice) – we need everybody playing well when you play a team at the caliber of Northwestern. We didn’t get that tonight.”
On Jason Morris
“He has not – and he’ll be the first to admit – that he has not shot the ball well so far this year. But I thought, maybe other than one decision, he made good decisions today. He did a very good job when he was in there in guarding Shurna. He probably did the best job of anyone. Hopefully as a young player, hopefully he’ll start to realize that when he was focused on defense, it’ll help him on offense. The one thing that was good to see was two offense rebounds, but we need him to get more than one defensive rebound. He went to the glass on the offensive end and he ran the court. He’s a player that can really help us. We need that consistency out of him and he’s a guy that can really help us.”
On Philips Arena
“It was great. We practiced here yesterday. It’s a great arena. It’s great environment. I didn’t like outcome, but it was nice.”
SOPHOMORE GUARD Jason Morris
“One of the things coach has said early in the year is that he’ll never tell us not to shoot a shot. But he said you guys aren’t doing the things you’re supposed to to deserve to take those shots. That kind of stuck with me, and I’ve been trying to get up that extra amount of shots this past week or so.”
On guarding Shurna
“There’s a couple things – coach yelled it out — he got two back-door plays and he (Coach) said it right before he did it. That’s just mentally toughness on my part to just make sure we pay attention. But I can confidently say that when he was pressured, he was reluctant to be as aggressive. But if you gave him space he was far more aggressive.”
NORTHWESTERN COACH BILL CARMODY
Opening Statement
“It’s great to get a win on the road. We told our guys before the game that it’s a road game against an ACC team, they are a good conference and that is important, but we are representing the Big Ten, so it’s good to get a win on the road. We jumped out early and it seemed like we were playing with a lead the whole game which is nice. Tech had a very good run in the last nine minutes in the first half and we were able to hang on. In the second half we hit a couple of shots to bring the lead from five to nine and we did a good job hanging on to the lead. We didn’t get killed off the backboard which has plagued us. I don’t know what the rebounding was but it was close and when we don’t get killed then I feel pretty good.”
On holding Tech to 21 second half points
“I thought our defense in the second half was very good because we weren’t that happy in the last eight or nine minutes of the first half. I thought if they didn’t score on the break and transition that we were doing a very nice job with the half court defense. My assistant coaches have been working hard at it and it paid off tonight.”
On defense and rebounding
“I think there was an effort in the first half. Maybe they missed some shots that they would normally make, you always think it is you, but it is a combination. I did think that we were focused on defense and only gave them one shot most of the time which has sort of plagued us over the years. I try to tell our guys to finish the play and that is what we did tonight by rebounding.”
On remaining undefeated this season
“People always say if you play tough games early, that helps you in February. I don’t know if that is true. I have seen teams play cupcake games early and down the stretch they do pretty well. I like this team because, especially in Charleston we played some pretty good clubs and each game came down to the last minute and we were able to win them all. We could have been 0-3 or 1-2, but that trait of being able to win close games is enviable. I don’t know if we have won enough times yet to say that it is a track record but I think it’s nice.”
On Northwestern’s high shooting percentage (55.4)
“We have to shoot well to win. We haven’t been shooting well lately, we have been doing okay. We have been playing together pretty well with the different guys and I was happy to see our center [Luka Mirkovic] tonight score points. He got a little carried away the last five minutes of the first half, I think he was shooting for 30 tonight, but he calmed down at halftime. And went back out there focused and that really helps us.”
