Feb. 19, 2013
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Postgame Quotes
Georgia Tech 58 – North Carolina, 70
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013
Georgia Tech Head Coach
Brian Gregory
“Give North Carolina credit, they took control of the game at about the 12 minute mark in the second half. They took advantage of some turnovers and some missed shots to get some transition baskets. They’re good. They’re going with the smaller lineup, ,and I thought we did a pretty good job against that, in particular guarding P.J. Hairston at the four, which was good to see because that was a new challenge for us.
At the same time, their quickness, in particular McAdoo at the five gave us some problems. We didn’t take care of the ball. In the second half our turnovers were a big key. We can talk about the three games in six days. I thought we got a little heavy-legged there in that middle stretch in the second half, but don’t take anything away from North Carolina, coach has them playing extremely well.
Obviously I’m disappointed with the outcome, but our guys played pretty darned hard out there today. They gave a pretty good effort. I thought they played hard and seemed like they really wanted it. With the lack of experience we have, when you want it sometimes you go too fast, and that’s what happens. Those are all things that come with experience.
It was great to have so many of our former players here, in particular Chris Bosh. He didn’t have to be here, but he came straight from the airport after flying in late. That meant a lot to me personally, as a coach and it meant a lot to our guys. That’s what great programs have. They have guys that were here one year, two years, three years, four years that come back because it’s important to them. It’s great to see.
We were 0-6 from the free throw line in the first half and those turnovers were a problem. I thought Chris (Bolden), Brandon (Reed), Mfon (Udofia) and even Daniel (Miller) in there a couple times, all did a really good job playing off each other and creating some good opportunities. We’ve got to get our big guys more shots, and at times they need to be more aggressive as well.
We played a good team and we did a lot of good things. We’re just not at a point right now unfortunately to be good enough to make up for some of the glaring mistakes that we made. Turnovers and empty possessions; if you get to the foul line but miss the shot; it’s just as good as a turnover.
North Carolina Head Coach
Roy Williams
Opening Statement
“Well you’re always happy about a win in the ACC on the road, when especially it’s an ugly game at times for both teams. I thought we had 100 turnovers and we only had nine, but I think in the first half James Michael McAdoo having 15 points was really big for us. In the second half I thought Reggie Bullock got out on the break and we found him on the break. He got nine points and all of those were in the second half. Marcus Paige had eight; all of them in the second half. Dexter Strickland had four, all in the second half because our starting guy is on the perimeter. Marcus, Reggie and Dexter were 0-for-9 at half time. It was good to get them a little more involved. Leslie McDonald gave us a big lift off the bench. There is no question about that whatsoever. It’s hard to win games shooting 38 percent. It’s still a W and that’s the way we’ll look at it and that’s the way we’ll take it.”
On the first game with UNC’s small lineup…
“You look down and see that Robert Carter Jr. had nine points and Daniel Miller had six points. Kammeon Holsey had 10 points. You’d like for nobody to be in double figures, but that’s not going to happen. Kammeon had 18 against us at our place. We wanted P.J. Hairston to front him more than a little post. We never got that defensive set working. P.J. stayed behind him all night. We jammed down a couple times. I think we got one turnover and one deflection that they ended up getting it. It was ok, it wasn’t great. I don’t like to look down and see that they outrebounded us 43-38 and in second chance points, 12-9. We don’t like that. I do like the fact that we got out on the fast break a little bit more too. Again, Leslie went down one time and really made a great double-team and they had to move it all around and really turned it over on the other side. We’ve got to be better at it, because it does give us some efficiency. P.J. had two great games back-to-back. He struggled a little bit more tonight. He rushed his shot thinking that the big guy was on him perhaps.”
On Dexter’s passing…
“I think he’s really done a nice job. He’s had a 13/1 assist to error ratio over the last two games. He’s the guy that all the experts wanted me to take out. He’s been pretty dog-on good over the last three games. We went brain dead a little bit in there. We took three or four just bad shots, forcing it up with three or four people around and that kind of thing. Other than that I thought we were really good. Nine turnovers – I’ll take that every game. I know I haven’t seen the points per possession chart, but it was a pretty high possession game for us. It was probably in the 80s at least.”
On any improvement in the pace of the game…
“Well with some Georgia Tech turnovers in the second half, Reggie had three layups in the second half on the break. We didn’t handle it real well, but I do like that we’re trying to run. We’re going to keep trying to run and going to keep getting faster.”
On James Michael McAdoo defending the five guy…
“He’s really done a nice job. He’s had some big challenges the last three games with the guys he’s trying to guard. He’s done a nice job. We’ve gotten Desmond Hubert in the game for a couple little spurts for what he can do on the defensive end and Jackson Simmons also. We needed to give James Michael some rest periods. He still played the most minutes at 35. He’s really done a good job defensively. He was the defensive player of the game in the Virginia game and I think he was second in the Duke game.”
“I think the offense hadn’t bothered James Michael at all. I think the biggest adjustment for him is who he is guarding on the defensive end of the floor. We’re asking him to do basically the same thing on the offense. I wanted him to post up a little bit more when we had a bigger lineup and I wanted to post up a little bit more when we’re small. We can’t afford to shoot 38 percent and win very often.
