Feb. 16, 2015
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– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Brian Gregory
On Chris Bolden’s absence
“He has been suspended for not adhering to the standards of our program. We have high expectations for our student-athletes, and he has not met those expectations. At this time, it’s an indefinite suspension. That’s the only comment I am going to make on it, and we will probably make a comment on it later on.”
Opening Statement
“It was a challenge heading in with the one game turnaround after a disappointing and heartbreaking loss on Saturday. But as our guys have done all year long, they got themselves off the mat. They came out and fought with an unbelievable intensity level and an unbelievable belief in each other. They had a spirit that was really good to see from the opening tip. I felt like we played as well defensively in the first half as we have all year. And we were still minus one on the glass at that time. But we actually played a little bit better on defense in the second half and did a great job on the glass. Our total team effort and the team energy was great as was the energy in the building. I know it was a bad night out there weather-wise, but we appreciate the fans that came out. We appreciate the students that came out and it made for a nice evening.”
On coming out strong against Clemson in the first half
“That’s one thing that I think Brad [Brownell] has done a really good job with. They [Clemson] are still great defensively. They are still tough and really good on the glass. But he has got some more explosive scoring ability now. With the one-day prep, they run a lot of stuff that’s difficult to prepare for. We told our guys that really had to compete and really had to communicate. We couldn’t give open threes to them and we had to guard the dribble extremely well. I thought we did both of those really well tonight.”
On decision to put Tadric Jackson in the starting lineup
“I just like the way Tadric has competed the last two weeks. Now unfortunately, he kind of mirrors our team. He has given great effort. He has an unbelievable attitude, does a lot of good things, and the ball does not end up going in. But he has not stopped. He has not stopped fighting in practice. He has not stopped working on his game to get better. And I like that about that kid. And he gave us some juice tonight.”
On Josh Heath hitting key free throws late in the game
“I was disappointed in our overall free-throw shooting. We are 70 plus percent from the line as a team, but we have missed some crucial ones in the last couple of games. And Josh going in, I thought would be between maybe 70-75 percent free throw shooter. He has not shot as well, but he played a heck of a game tonight. We need that out of him the rest of the year. That run we had was keyed by our point guard play. We got defensive stops and got the ball out on the break. Like it or not, they are the guys that make the offense go. And I thought Josh was really, really good tonight.”
CLEMSON HEAD COACH BRAD BROWNELL
Opening Statement
“Congratulate Brian [Gregory’s] staff and players. I thought they played really well and really hard. They had livelier legs than we did. I just thought they had more energy. The better team won tonight. They outplayed us. I felt like we were on our heels most of the night. In the first half we get down eight and battle back and cut it to two or tie it, then they get it back to six or seven, then we battle back and tie it. Every time the game got close they’d punch us in the nose and knock us back a couple steps. When we cut it to two at half, I thought we might rally and get our legs under us and play well – not at all. Right from the beginning they played great. We didn’t play very well in the second half. I thought we were very bad offensively. I thought we forced shots. [We were] a little bit selfish. [We] took bad shots. We didn’t play good basketball at all in the second half. The better team won.”
Late second half run for Clemson
“I don’t know. It’s easy to look at it like that. The other team has a lead [and] just human nature you get comfortable. You get a little afraid and [play] not to lose. So [as] the other team, now we are aggressive. We can pin our ears back because it doesn’t really matter if we give up a dunk on a press break. We fought back and had a couple steals. We got it to where it looked like we had a chance. But really we never got to a position where we could put a lot of fear in them. I don’t know, it was just a little small part of the game.”
Points in the paint
“Obviously rebounding with Brian [Gregory’s] team is always an issue. They do a great job of going to the glass. In transition they got it out and beat us down the floor some. I thought they pushed us around a little bit. We started the game poorly rebounding; we only had 40 percent of our rebounds. Then we got it up to 73 percent; we were doing much better. And that’s when the game came back to us at the half. Then in the second half, again, I just thought we were on our heels and we were rotating a lot. Guys were free and open for layups and put backs and tips. We just didn’t play with the kind of life that you have to play with if you’re going to beat this team. This team is much better than their ACC record shows. When you watch film of their team, they’re competing extremely hard against everybody in our league. They’re playing them down to the last two minutes, the last possession. They’re much better than 3-11. Brian and his guys are doing a lot better job than what most people think. Especially getting those kids to compete as hard as they’re competing right now.”
On three-point shooting
“Eleven is abnormal for us. We don’t usually make eleven. We’re normally around the five or six range. We didn’t shoot it well today. We had some open ones for sure, but some of that was Georgia Tech’s defense. Those guys played very well today.”
