Jan. 15, 2012
GEORGIA TECH COACH Brian Gregory
Opening statement:
“I think you saw kind of a preview of what Maryland and Georgia Tech games are going to be like in the future. Mark and I come from a lot of the same school of thought in terms of defense, rebounding, and so forth. It’s hard to score out there. I think we played with a pretty good effort, pretty good intensity, and did a halfway decent job with some stuff. On the road you have to be better than that, and we just weren’t today.”
On the team’s shot selection:
“I thought they forced us into some tough shots. We maybe took a couple of quick threes, but other than that we actually outshot them from the field. The difference is they had a couple guys step up, [Terrell] Stoglin made a couple, but in particular I thought [Sean] Mosley was the toughest kid on the court. He flat out won them the game.”
On guarding Terrell Stoglin:
“It was a team effort, but I think Jason [Morris] and Glen [Rice’s] length was effective and we were really able to plug off some guys. He made those quick seven points to start the second half, and unfortunately I wish we had those two possessions back. That was probably the only time all game long where we relaxed a little bit on him.”
On what he will ultimately take away from the game:
“Well ultimately you would hope that our guys figured out that on the road in a tough place to play when the game goes down to the last three minutes down six, we didn’t make as good of decisions as we need to. Those three consecutive possessions when we were down six, all three upper classmen didn’t make very good decisions with the ball. We have to get better at that.”
Junior Guard Glen Rice, Jr.
On holding Terrell Stoglin to only 14 points:
“We placed an emphasis on trying to make sure [Terrell Stoglin] didn’t get off and hit too many shots, so we played excellent team defense. Just knowing my team was back there talking helps you to get the confidence and play good defense.”
On his team’s poor shooting:
“It just happens. We got a lot of easy looks it seemed like, but sometimes they just don’t go down.”
On the play of Maryland:
“[Maryland] came out there ready to play. They just came out there and played hard. They got a lot of offensive rebounds at one point in the game and they out-toughed us in this game.”
Junior Guard Mfon Udofia
On the game:
“It was a real physical game and we didn’t come out on top, so it’s very tough for us. We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and go back to practice.”
On his team’s effort:
“Through stretches we gave a lot of effort and then sometimes we didn’t. In this game of college basketball in the ACC and on the road, we’ve got to bring it every night and be tough the whole game.”
On his team’s poor shooting:
“Offensively our shot wasn’t falling and in the first half our defense kept us in the game. That was pretty much it. You’re going to have games like that where offensively your shots might not fall, but at the end of the day you’ve still got to play tough and defend and rebound.”
Sophomore Forward Kammeon Holsey
On the game:
“[Maryland] played a very physical game. They outrebounded us by two, 38-36, and we could have done a better job. It was a physical game and they out-toughed us tonight.”
On the play of Maryland:
. “[Maryland] plays hard and they play physical. They’re very aggressive and they won the battle tonight.”
On the final outcome of the game:
“We felt like that game was ours. We just gave it up. We played hard in spurts, but we didn’t play hard for 40 minutes.”
MARYLAND COACH MARK TURGEON
Opening statement:
“As you can see from the first half the game was pretty ugly for both teams. For two teams that really pride themselves on defense it was a very physical game. Georgia Tech is a very physical team, we knew it was going to be that way, and it took us awhile to get used to it. I thought the building was dead at the start of the game, and I thought we were dead. It was really quiet and I think it affected our guys a little bit. From there until the half, we made a big play right before the half and then we had a little bit better movement and did better at sharing the basketball. We were comfortable with the lead and doing what we do we let them come up around the three-minute mark. It was a good win for us; any win is a good win for us.”
On covering Kammeon Holsey:
“We tried to keep fresh bodies on him. Our [scout] team did a great job at scouting him. We then felt comfortable guarding their sets and I think we did a nice job guarding them. I think we stuck to the game plan defensively which is always good. They might have missed a couple shots in the last couple games, but when you don’t get a lot of openings it’s hard. That’s what happened to us, we didn’t get a lot of openings and when we got them, we air balled them or missed the stroke the second half. But I think Sean [Mosley] was great and made a lot of great free throws, he was 10 for 10.”
On improving on defense:
“I thought we rebounded pretty well defensively. We let 11 rebounds for them, which is a little too much but our post defense at times was good. Alex [Len] was just so tall that he really affected their shots. Our post got into some foul trouble today. I think it was pretty good; I need to watch the film to really know for sure. We’ll definitely take more pride in it and hopefully get better at the other end as we move forward.”
On Nick Faust’s game:
“Nick [Faust] was great. I was pretty hard on Nick during films after the last game, and he played exactly the way he needs to play right now. He needs to make plays defensively and get steals for us, as well as help us build our lead and really concentrate on guarding and rebounding. As I said on the radio, I need guys to grow up and Nick is growing up. He is listening and trying to do what is best for the team, and not what is best for him. We won today because he grew up and helped the team the way he was supposed to today.”
On turnovers:
“The one thing we didn’t do besides not make shots was that we did not play smart offensively. We’re getting all of these stops and fumbling as we are going down the floor. Pe’Shon [Howard] didn’t play well offensively having five turnovers. He made some not-so-smart plays in there but some games we have nine turnovers and in others we have 15. We need to take better care of it as we go forward. Does it worry me? Yes, turnovers worry me, whether we play home or on the road, I’m uncorrected. We need to be better if we are going to be playing next week.”
