Nov. 14, 2014
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GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Brian Gregory
Opening Statement
“From our program, our thoughts and prayers are with Thaddeus Young and his family right now. His mother passed away today. He’s been great for our program. He’s been around during the summer and runs a terrific AAU program. You know one of the things we’re building here is a family atmosphere over the last two days. Today Chris Bosh was in the practice facility with the Heat in practice. We got to see him. We got to see Derrick Favors yesterday. So it’s something that we are trying to build, and I think we’re making steps in that. And we’re trying now to make some steps on the court now too. I though today we did a good job, at least initially in this first game, of making a progression to how we’re going to play and what we’re going to need to do to be successful in terms of our identity and our style of play. We got some good basketball from a lot of different guys, which is going to be important. I think Georgia is a good team. They are a well-coached team and not a team that’s going to beat themselves. We had to do a good job of executing our stuff. And in a game like this, you always worry the first game that there’s going to be a thousand mistakes made. And we sure had our share of them. But we played hard and communicated and kind of fought through them. I’m proud of our guys. It was a good win. We got to get back at practice and keep improving.”
On team’s strong start to second half
“As I tell our guys, we break it down into five four minute segments each half. It’s 10 rounds in a heavyweight fight. And we talked about winning the first round of the second half or the sixth round. And It was important that we came out aggressive. I didn’t want our guys on their heels. And I thought we did that. I thought we answered every time they made a little run, which is good because you just don’t know in playing your first game how guys are going to respond. And I thought we did a good job of that today. “
On Quinton Stephen’s shooting
“He’s a good shooter. We got him open shots. And I said the one thing that Quinton has a really good feel of is finding open spots to get those shots. I’m not sure he caught the backboard on that one. But we’ll take it when we can get it. I thought he played a good game even before he made a couple of those. We’ll get him some shots. He had five rebounds for us. You know the three turnovers – he’s got to get better at that because him playing more on the perimeter, I think that’s going to be a big key. We have to have more assists than turnovers. And then we have to outrebound our opponent. And then if we get to the free throw line more than our opponent than we have got a pretty good chance of winning the game. And that’s what we did. Quinton’s had a great summer, good fall. It’s the first game and he’s just a sophomore. I said he’s got a chance to be a pretty good player and he showed a glimpse of that tonight.”
On Charles Mitchell’s impact in the frontcourt
“He’s a passionate, energetic playing. And I like those guys. He loves playing. There’s some things that we have to work on. Like if he gets a dunk he has to get back. Stuff like that. But I don’t even mind that. He’s got good feel for the game. Again, he made some mistakes, which he is going to make. I think he’s got a chance to be a really good player. That’s the thing, I think you need to challenge him every day to become really serious about being a great player. And I think he can be.”
GEORGIA HEAD COACH MARK FOX
Opening Statement
“Obviously it was a hard-fought game to open the season. I feel the difference in the game was our inability to do something besides settling for the three-point shot early and Quinton Stephens could make three point shots.”
Change in team from first half to second
“The team was just a little emotional. J.J. Frazier was in a huge role, I don’ think he’s started a game ever. It took us a real long time to calm down. Give Tech credit, their defense was good. They played well all game. It took us a long time-really all the way to halftime to really just calm down and move the ball effectively.”
On Kenny Gaines
“We tried to play him just a few minutes at a time. He’s the only guy on our team that has an excuse for not playing well. I think he’s only practiced three or four times. We just tried to get a few minutes here and there out of him. He’s obviously just not in shape yet, but he gave a good effort.”
On number of three-point attempts in first half
“We settled for three point shots. I have to give Tech’s defense credit for giving our guys the only shot they were willing to work for. We settled for the three, it’s not what we intended to do.”
On Tech’s size advantage
“I don’t think that really played a factor. We scored. When we finally settled down and really wanted it we got it, we just waited too long to do that.”
On opening the season with Tech
“It’s the date we got stuck with. Both teams had issues in scheduling, it’s just where we ended up quite frankly. It’s the only time we could play the game when the students could be on campus.”
On team’s future this season
“I’m confident in my team. We’ve got a harder schedule than probably we’ve ever had. We have a good team. I’m not going to panic because we lost a game. We got outplayed, we’ve got to get better.”
On Quinton Stephens’ performance
“We thought he was a guy that can shoot the ball. He obviously had a great night.”
On the end of the game
“My issue was not with the clock. My issue was that it takes nine seconds to inbound the ball, or eight seconds whatever it was, that should be a violation. It’s a judgment call that they chose not to call, and that was my complaint. When I look back on it maybe the ball was rolling sideways, I don’t know. That was not a factor in the game.”
