Feb. 4, 2012
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GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Brian Gregory
Opening Statement
“I thought our guys’ effort for 40 minutes today was tremendous. You saw a glimpse of their scrappiness and intensity level that we now need to continue to play with. We made some big plays in chasing down loose balls and coming up with stuff. I am pleased with that level of intensity and pleased with being successful at the end, but how we did it. We grinded it out a little bit, got some defensive stops, execute some stuff at the end.
“I thought we executed some stuff very well on the offensive end. That was a team victory; there is no doubt about that. We got a lot of good basketball from a lot of different guys. Boston College is a difficult team to play to be honest with you and they became more difficult with the foul trouble because they went small and we had to make some adjustments and communicate a little more. For us to force 14 turnovers and hold a team to 35 percent shooting was a pretty good effort. Pleased with the effort, we will get a day off and start getting ready for Thursday night.”
On holding Boston College to under 40 percent shooting
“It is hard to win games if teams are shooting 44 percent against us, which I think is what they were heading into this game. So much of that does go back to our offense, we have flaws and are deficient offensively. We have to keep getting better but I thought we were better today. Our half court defense was better today, and they are hard to play against. You have to change some of your defensive rules and tendencies because of the way that they play but I thought our guys did a good job of that. As I said, 29 percent from the three, 34 percent overall. We did a good job of keeping them in front, they shot over 50 percent of their shots behind the arc and that is way more than they normally shoot.
On Brandon Reed
“We talked about that. It was important to get some quality minutes from him. He started off the second half very well. He did well offensively, his primary coverage was on [Lonnie] Jackson and did a good job on him. Jackson is a good scorer and a good shooter and he made some primary plays and better decisions with the ball. He was slowing down a little bit, I was pleased with him. Three defensive rebounds from your two-guard is important as well. He had an all around good game today.”
On Mfon Udofia
“He is not going to have very many 0-for-7 days. I think that his best look came when the shot clock was winding down and it gave Kammeon [Holsey] an opportunity to put it back. He goes 3-for-7 or 4-for-7 and he has eight points and six assists and you are looking at a point guard’s day’s production, we just have to put those two days together now. He made really good decisions and was under control the entire game. I thought his shots were all good, so I can live with all of them. I think we maybe took two bad shots the whole game which is why we were successful.
On getting the first win at Philips
“It’s been a while since we won. It is a good start to the second half, we are 1-0 and 1-0 at home. We haven’t won here yet, but we played some pretty good teams. I think our guys are excited about that opportunity. They have to now gear it up and come back here on Thursday. Every day we have to keep getting better, staying positive and making sure that the guys that are buying in are getting the rewards for that buy in.”
GEORGIA TECH GUARD Mfon Udofia
On the victory
“It was very exciting to get a win at home; it was our first win at Philips Arena. Everybody in the locker room right now is going crazy and we are excited about that. I will take that trade off any day. We watched a lot of film and saw the mistakes that were made in the Florida State game and throughout the rest of the season. We just wanted to come out today and control the pace of the game and that is what we did. Everybody played team basketball today. Like coach said in the locker room, we don’t know who scored what or who stood out today because we all played together. We were trying not to rush things out there and just control the pace of the game. That is what it was. I wasn’t trying to play safe, I was just trying to control the game.”
On Daniel Miller
“His teammates have a lot of confidence in him. We just said go out there and try and make every bucket you can, go strong and go through the defender do whatever you do to put the ball in the bucket, that is what you do. The FSU game he played really well and we wanted that to carry over to this game and it did.”
BOSTON COLLEGE HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Opening Statement
“I thought it was a hard fought game and both teams were in dire needs of a win. It was not pretty basketball, but I thought both teams played extremely well and doing what their coaches want. They executed a little better then we did down the stretch. They made plays and key shots. I thought we had a couple of open ones down the stretch that we didn’t make, but once again I thought it was a pretty evenly played game. They just made plays when we didn’t.”
On whether he expected the scrappy style of play
“I think both Brian (Gregory) and I are trying to get our guys to do similar things, by playing hard. Unfortunately right now, neither team is a very good offensive basketball team. I think that is what you see, with kids trying to do what their coach wants and playing hard. I thought they played hard and got their share of loose balls and deserved to win.”
On the confidence of the team
“I think it is difficult with so many young guys who have never played college basketball before. They have come from some great, successful programs, and now for the first time having to deal with failure. In particular the physical part with just being overmatched at times. I think it is critical that the coaches and all of us stay at positive at all time. This is not the end of the world, this is part of the process of building a program. A lot of times you would say that you came down to Georgia Tech on the road with all these freshmen and played a hard-fought game to the last possession, I think it is a step in the right direction. At some point you hope everything clicks with this group, and further as we will build this program, additional guys to help these guys.”
On what Georgia Tech did well defensively in the last part of the first half
“I think it was a combination. Georgia Tech did a very good job defensively, and we weren’t really confident with the basketball. By blasting ball screens and blasting any kind of screen, making us really have difficulty passing the ball. I was disappointed on our side, because that is not how we play. We have got to get the ball hot, we really never had those opportunities. We almost played into that aggressiveness. We kept the ball on one side of the floor, over dribbled, and tried to make plays that weren’t there. That’s’ what happens when you turn the ball over 10 times in the first half. You shoot a better percentage when you are open. I give them credit though. I thought they were very aggressive, and they sensed some weaknesses of ours. We did not do a good job fighting.”
