Dec. 10, 2005
– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Paul Hewitt
“The best thing that came out of this game was the ball movement. That started primarily when Paco Diaw went into the game. He did a great job. In the first he played four minutes and had two assists. I don’t think he had the ball in his hands more than 8-10 seconds. His ability to move the ball and play defense sparked us in the first half and it got contagious. You saw the ball move, and we started to take better shots. We got better looks and we got the ball inside and made strong post moves. Hopefully that’s something we can continue to do. We need to understand that when you move that basketball instead of pounding it and holding it, you start to get better shots. We got up 23 and fell back into that little trap of, OK, the game’s over so let me get my own offense now. All of a sudden we started going off the dribble again, driving in traffic and taking tough shots instead of moving the ball and getting easier shots. That’s disappointing, but during this break coming up, hopefully we can solve some of those issues. We’ve got one game in the next 18 days. Certainly we’ve got to prepare for Jacksonville, but a lot of this break is going to be about getting ourselves to a place where we play more consistent basketball. We had 20 assists tonight on 27 baskets. That’s the time of passing and unselfish play we need to be a good team.
“They played hard. They started pressing us, and we allowed them to get back into the game, and that gave them a bit of enthusiasm. Had we continued to move the ball and take good shots, we could have stretched that lead out. We allowed them to get back in it, and they really buckled down and played some good basketball. They came after us a little bit.
“[Smith] He plays very hard, and when a guy plays that hard, sometimes it irritates other people. People asked me if I was worried about his 21 free throw attempts (vs. Georgia) and the missed free throws. I told him this morning, Jeremis if you go to the foul line 21 times a game, you’ll be an all-American. Keep playing hard and keep getting to the free throw line. The correction he needed to make was a very simple one. But he plays hard. He’s relentless. The only was to play him is to play as hard or harder than he does. I told him, You’re the guy we can’t afford to lose. He does everything pretty well.
“Theo earned the start. It’s nothing about messages. Whoever wants it, is going to get it. Theo played with a lot of energy against Georgia. He practiced extremely well yesterday, so we made the decision after practice to start him because he earned it. People forget that before his injury his sophomore year, he was on his way to becoming our starting center. He’s had some bad breaks. We as a coaching staff felt like maybe this it, maybe he’s about to assert himself and become the starting center we thought he was going to be. Ra’Sean can either respond or allow Theo to take his spot.
TENNESSEE STATE HEAD COACH CY ALEXANDER
“First I’d like to commend Georgia Tech on coming through with a big win. I thought our young people showed a lot of character and a lot of heart -we played very, very hard. Jeremis Smith played an awesome game. He was the difference. Here’s a young man who was shooting 48 percent from the free throw line going into this game, and he shoots 10-for-10. We lose by 10 and he makes 10 free throws. That was the difference because in our scouting report, one of the things we talked about was that we would put him on the line and play the odds. We got beat by the odds tonight. He stepped up and did a very good job. Overall, I thought we showed a lot of guts and character.
“[Smith] He’s a physical presence. We didn’t play a lot of man-to-man until about the 10 minute mark of the second half. We just felt like the way we could stay in the game was to match up on their shooters and give him (Smith) the opportunity to make plays. To his credit, he did. I thought our young people did a good job of executing our game plan. We showed a lot of patience on offense, and our shot selection, overall, was good.
