Jan. 25, 2006
– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Paul Hewitt
“They established their physical presence early. They had 12 offensive rebounds in the first half, and they were really taking the ball inside strong. They established themselves early in the game. In the second half, I thought we had some pretty good energy and we battled back a little bit, but we just couldn’t get anything to fall. Obviously their defense was a big part of the reason why we couldn’t make any shots, but we also had some just roll off.
[Offensive drought?] The last game it was just being careless with the ball. This game, early on I thought our movement was not what it needed to be in terms of cutting and passing and being active. In the second half I thought we did a pretty good job of moving and we got the ball into some pretty good spots. I’m anxious to see the film and see if there were that many that rolled right off the rim, but it felt like there were an awful lot where we missed a layup, missed a tip or we had a good clean look and just couldn’t get it to go down.
“The last couple of games we’ve had one or two guys play exceptionally well and a couple of other guys don’t match that. The last time we had a group of guys play well together was the NC State game. Ra’Sean is doing a better job, not just putting up numbers but other areas as well. Defensively he’s doing a better job. I’m very pleased with his development over the last couple of games.
“They established themselves inside much more than we did. The way they run their offense, everybody knows they’re going to try to get the ball into the low post. I thought in the first 10 minutes of the game we executed how we wanted to play their post players, and we were right there but all of a sudden . . . Jones made a couple of threes and made us tentative. But they established themselves very well. They shot 35 percent but that’s kind of deceiving because they would miss a shot and get the offensive rebound, and then we had to foul them to stop a layup.
“The last two days I thought we had excellent practices. We’ve been working hard, and they’re hurting right now in that locker room. It’s tough to see us come out and not give ourselves a chance to win by either having those lapses offensively where we don’t score or by having some breakdowns defensively and giving up stuff that we knew was going to be coming. It’s tough but we’ve got no choice but to play through it.”
MARYLAND HEAD COACH GARY WILLIAMS
“As you can imagine, it’s been a pretty tough week this week in College Park. I just have to give a lot of credit where it deserves to be, and that’s to the players. When you talk about distractions, there were a lot of distractions and when we got on the court and got a chance to practice, it was like a relief. I thought we played really well given the situation, working some guys in, changing the positions a little bit. I was really proud of our team.”
“The thing about Georgia Tech, no one has more respect for Paul Hewitt and what he does for this program and the way his kids play, than me. I’ve gotten to know Paul since he’s been in the league, and that’s going to be a very good basketball team, it’s just a matter of when. When you look at who left here last year, the great players who were a part of the Final Four team, I just think they are very close to being a good basketball team.
“This is a great win for us, because of the respect that I have and our players have for Georgia Tech.”
“We’re about being a good basketball team. Whatever happens, we have to overcome it, and that’s been our attitude since October 15. Last year DJ Strawberry went down with the ACL and we probably didn’t do a good job of overcoming it, but those things happen, during the course of the year, and you can’t just say, like the thing that happened to Chris McCray, you can’t say “ok, now we got to get tougher”, that has to already be in the program and what we’ve done the last 17 years is the reason why we could play this game tonight, not because of anything we did the last two days of practice.”
“Nik has stepped it up and that’s what you want out of your seniors. I think he realizes just how good he can be when he looks at every piece of the game and really tries to be good at every part of the game, and that’s what he’s doing. He’s an exceptional rebounder, he did a great defensive job in addition to his scoring. He’s been a complete player the last couple of weeks.”
“Paul’s teams all play hard. That team plays just like his other Georgia Tech teams. They are just getting used to one another, that’s the biggest thing. I went into this year saying with all our juniors and seniors that we’d be a very experienced team and when we are together, we do run a pretty good offense out there this year. It takes time. The hardest thing in basketball is getting all five guys on the same page because the area is so small and they’re big people and it’s tough. They will be there, though.”
GEORGIA TECH CENTER Ra’Sean Dickey
On losing home games — “It just got away from us the last two games. We try and come in, practice hard and just get over it. We just have to move on, these last two games are in the past. We have to look on to Boston College and Virginia Tech.”
On the frustration of the offense — “It was hard for Jeremis [Smith] to get into the offense, he tried to come in and get it going. [Anthony] Morrow really didn’t get it going until the middle of the second half. They had to just keep coming to me and I just kept scoring. We had a couple of calls not go our way, we kept playing and tried to get threw it, but shots wouldn’t fall.”
On being on the road the next two games — “On T.V., Boston College looks like it’s a tough place to play. Their crowd gets into the game and we like that type of atmosphere, but it’s going to be tough.”
GEORGIA TECH GUARD Mario West
“It was a very disappointing loss. Anytime you are at home, you want to take care of home court, and honestly, we cannot make any excuses, we didn’t get it done. We can say this, and we can say that, but we know that we have to play harder. We have to protect home court advantage and we didn’t get that done tonight.”
On four straight loses in the ACC — “We have to stay together because we are a family. Once you start losing games like that, it can get real ugly. Losing two straight at home and now going on the road to two tough places to play at, it’s tough. We beat Boston College at home earlier this year, but we know it’s going to be tougher at their place and we’re still searching for our second road win of the season, first in the ACC.”
GEORGIA TECH GUARD Anthony Morrow
“We have two tough games on the road, which presents us with more adversity, but it’s going to make us stronger. We have to go out there and play harder than what we have been.”
On his offensive play tonight — “I try not to let my offense dictate my game. I think I’m more that just a stand still shooter. Maybe last year I was just a stand still shooter, but I try to do other things like get some offensive rebounds, get some steals, and make some defensive plays. I know offensively it’s not going to be like this every single night, shots are going to fall, and sometimes they are not going to fall.”
