Feb. 9, 2003
Recap?|? Box Score?|? Photo Gallery
Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt
“That was a great team win. We’ve been looking for more contributions out of other guys. B.J., Marvin and Chris have been very consistent offensively for us, and Jarrett Jack has picked it up of late. It helps when we get Isma’il chipping in and Tony McHenry doing the things that he did today. He was very active defensively. He only has six minutes on the stat sheet but he made some big plays down the stretch. If we can get everybody chipping in like that, we’re going to continue to play some pretty good basketball. It was a good win for us. We beat an excellent Maryland team. You can see why they’ve gotten off to such a good start. Down the stretch when they could have folded, they continued to make big shots. I thought there were times when we were right there in their faces, but Nicholas, Blake and Randle made some tough shots.
[Possession when Jack hit three-pointer with 39 seconds left] “We were trying to reset our personnel and get the best offensive lineup on the floor. We ran a side out-of-bounds set and we didn’t get the shot we wanted. The play broke down. We ran a pick-and-roll to a back screen one time and actually wanted to run it again. There were still about 10 seconds on the clock and was trying to get Jarrett to run it again. Silly freshman, he just kind of went and did his own thing. Lucky for us.
“I thought we did a good job defensively. You’ve got to give Maryland credit for hitting some very difficult shots down the stretch. We weren’t exactly clean offensively down the stretch, but in the end we hit enough free throws and forced enough turnovers.
“When we played them up there, I thought we were right there. That was a tough one to lose. We were right there, and I thought if we could get right there on the homecourt, that would give us enough of a lift. We felt very confident.
[On Elder’s play] “College’s basketball biggest secret. But as long he keeps dropping 23, 25 against quality teams, he can remain a secret.
NOTING GEORGIA TECH: Tech improved to 11-0 at home this year. The Jackets have now won 13 in row at the Thrillerdome . . . Tech has won seven of its last 10 games overall . . . Jarrett Jack scored a career-high 20 points. His previous high was 16 vs. Georgia . . . Chris Bosh has a career-high five blocked shots. Bosh recorded his ninth double-double of the season . . . .Tech’s 55.6 percent shooting from the field was its second-best effort of the season, bettered only by 57.7 percent against NC State…Ed Nelson had his fifth double-figure rebounding effort and fourth in the last seven games . . . Tech has won three of the last four meetings with Maryland at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
[On Georgia Tech] “They a very different team here.”
[On losing two games in a row] “We’re human. People are spoiled. We’re a very different team this year. The league is 16 games. It’s not this week. There’s no big mental thing or anything. We’re going to come in and practice tomorrow for Florida State.”
[On his team’s defensive problems] “We haven’t played with the intensity we need.”
[On Jack’s three-point bank shot] “When things aren’t going well, those things happen. I think Elder made one from side when he didn’t even look at the rim.”
[On his team’s inability to make an outside shot in the first half] “We couldn’t make anything inside the paint either. We’ve got to put it together now. If a guy gets his shot, as a member of the team he is expected to make that shot, not to do anything over his head. And I think we will do that.”
Georgia Tech Freshman Guard Jarrett Jack
“I think this is probably our biggest win of the season. Coming into the game, we had just lost on the road at Clemson and we knew that we had to have this game if we still want to make a run at going to the NCAA Tournament.”
“The way we played today is something that we need to do more often, as far as coming out with a fiery start. I think if we can come out like that and maintain our lead, we’ll have a chance to win every game coming up.”
“Coming into today’s game I told the team that we can’t just go 6-2, we need to have a big win over a big team. Maryland is definitely a big team, that’s why they’re ranked eighth in the country. Today, Coach really prepared us with a great game plan and we just executed it tonight.”
Georgia Tech Sophomore Forward Isma’il Muhammad
(On the play of Tech’s bench) “The game didn’t really start out the way we wanted it to, so the guys on the bench had to do our jobs and bring some energy to the game. Once we brought that energy, it really carried over to the other guys on the team.”
(On his recent struggles on offense) “I feel confident now, I’ve been struggling on the offensive end of the floor this season and hopefully this game will give me a little boost.”
Georgia Tech Junior Guard Marvin Lewis
(On Tech’s play at home) “I think you can see that the crowd support today was amazing and that really helps us with our confidence. We just feel a lot more confident at home and now we just need to start playing on the road.”
“This win is really big for us. After the loss at Clemson we were kind of down, but this gets out confidence back and now we’re going to go on the road and go into NC State and try to give it our best effort.”
“I think today you saw the growth in our team. You have guys like Jarrett Jack stepping up as leaders and saying ‘let’s take control and keep our heads.’ For the most part we just did what we had to do to win the game.”
Georgia Tech Sophomore Guard B.J. Elder
(On being called the biggest secret in college basketball by Paul Hewitt) “I don’t really think about it that way, I just try to come out and play hard and help my team the best way that I can. If I just keep working hard day-in and day-out, eventually I’ll get the recognition.”
