Jan. 22, 2005
– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Paul Hewitt
“Obviously that’s a very tough game to lose. I thought both teams played extremely hard, especially in the second half. Down the stretch, they made more plays. I thought we had the right matchup there at the end, and Dixon drove and made a very, very difficult angled shot to beat us.
(Final offensive sequence) “Kind of the story of the game. I thought Ra’Sean’s shot looked pretty good. I thought Mario’s looked pretty uncontested and he just left it a little short. That’s an obvious one, but there was just so many others, just chippies when we made pretty good moves in the low post and just couldn’t finish.”
“I don’t think you ever assume that any one game is going to fix anything. What you hope is that progress game by game. I told them, We can’t sit back and talk about coulda, shoulda and woulda after this game. We’re off tomorrow – we’ve got to take care of our bodies because we’re a little banged up physically – and just be ready to work on Monday. The only way you can get out of these type of ruts is just through hard work.
“Certainly our team is capable of better offensive production, and in the second half, defensively, we could have done a better job, but give them credit. They made some very difficult shots. Especially in the first half, when they took us to the end of the shot clock three or four times. Again, that’s a credit to them.
[Disparity in number of shot attempts] “We got to the foul line a lot, so that accounts for some of the disparity. I thought in the second half we did a much better job of getting shots but there were some we just didn’t knock down. More than anything in the second half, I thought they did a great job driving the ball. Offensively, I was actually somewhat pleased that we moved the ball better (in the second half) and got some uncontested shots. Will got a couple of threes, a couple of drives, and Luke got a couple of hook shots that usually fall in for him.
[On Bynum] “We all challenged him a little bit at halftime. I thought in the first half he was being a little passive, especially on the defensive end. He got himself going by getting after people on the defensive end, and that got his motor started. I thought he scored well in the first half but wasn’t playing as complete a game as he can. He responded well in the second half.
GEORGIA TECH GUARD Will Bynum
“It’s a tough time, we’ve lost three in a row. The only thing that we can look forward to is positive things and bouncing back from this. That’s what we have to do. Great teams bounce back from times like this, and we don’t want to be in this situation again.”
“We have to concentrate every possession, and come to practice and give it our all. Everything else will fall into place.”
“You’ve got to give all the credit to Virginia Tech. They came in and played well, and they got the win.”
“We just need a couple of good games shooting the ball. We’ve got to keep getting shots up and they will fall.”
VIRGINIA TECH HEAD COACH SETH GREENBERG
“I’m just really proud of our basketball team. We got down early and talked about win, lose or draw and just learning to be consistent in our effort and preparation and how we approach the game with whether its at home or on the road and I thought our team did a really good job of that.”
“This is a great environment to play in. What an atmosphere. I couldn’t hear myself think when they made that run and at the end of the game. Our guys showed some competitive spirit that we hadn’t shown early in the season and we’re starting to learn how to play harder.”
“I look at what Paul has done here and it’s a blueprint of what we’re trying to do and so to come in here and compete at a level they compete is pretty special to me and something that makes me really proud of our team.”
“We got lucky at the end of the game. I mean, let’s face it. Any of those shots could have gone in. Let’s be truthful. But, we did play hard. We didn’t guard the ball that well at the end of the game, but we did play hard. Carlos Dixon, coming out of the timeout we just put that sidelines play in when he’s at power forward to use his quickness and ballhandling and he made two great plays. If he doesn’t make two terrific plays at the end of the game, we lose that game. It’s nice when you only have one senior to come up with back to back plays.”
