March 5, 2016
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– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Brian Gregory
Opening statement
“Today’s a tough day, to be honest with you, with the emotions of the five seniors. Each of them has a different story, and today’s about them and what they’ve done…The game kind of embodies a lot of the stuff that we’re about. We had to grit it out sometimes. Not a great start, but (we) hung in there then did some good stuff playing against a good, high-quality team. We just found ways – this team has unbelievable resiliency, unbelievable resolve. They’re tough and playing extremely well right now. Marcus (Georges-Hunt) was steady the whole game. Adam (Smith) made some big shots, what he’s done for all us all year long. Chuck (Mitchell) was Chuck with 11 rebounds and really good defensively on their [frontcourt]. James (White) gave us an athletic lift with a couple of blocked shots. He plays 12 minutes and gets three rebounds for us, two blocks. Nick (Jacobs) probably played his best overall game. We challenged those big guys at halftime…We’re pleased with where we’re at and how we’ve played the last month or so. Hopefully, we carry that momentum into D.C.”
On Pittsburgh defense:
“Both teams defensively were very good today. Pitt’s numbers have not been typical Pitt defense but if you saw them last week against Duke, that was Pitt. Defensively, they were every bit as good today. We couldn’t get a clean look. We had to make some tough shots. We couldn’t get to the rim after the first 10 minutes or so. They do a great job of guarding post players…We got some good shots around the basket but couldn’t finish anything.”
On post-season possibilities:
“Because of the unbalanced schedule, the number you look at now is strength of schedule. Our strength of schedule heading into today was anywhere from fourth in the country to maybe 15th in the country. With that strength of schedule, we’re 8-10 in the league and 18-13 overall. That puts us in a pretty good position. I do think if you look at what we’ve done, we have a chance. We should be in the discussion. Do we need to do a few more things? Yes, I think so, but we’re in position now.”
PITTSBURGH HEAD COACH JAMIE DIXON
Opening statement
“Obviously, we did not get the result we wanted. A couple things stand out – obviously, the shooting, once again. Two games in a row with our numbers where they are at, this is the result you get. I thought we played hard but, again, we got outrebounded. We’re just not playing good enough to win against a team that’s playing well on the road. We had our opportunities — we had the lead, but certainly didn’t get it done. (Adam) Smith hit some good shots. Some were guarded pretty well, but give him credit. It’s certainly a disappointing loss for us. It puts us in a situation where we’ve got to do something here going forward. This is another tough loss for us, and a bad loss in that we don’t make shots and play the way we want to play.”
On what Tech did to take away Pitt’s inside game, particularly Michael Young
“I don’t know that they did anything different. We got some layups in transition and (Michael Young) made a couple of jump shots. We were going through him, but we didn’t finish a couple shots. We continued to go to him and had some turnovers on the drives. To me, we should have gotten some more offensive rebounds with as many missed shots as we did have. We got them on the block – they’ve got big bodies in there and they threw a couple at him and probably affected some of his shots.”
On being outrebounded and if they emphasized rebounding before the game.
“Yeah, we did. They’re (Georgia Tech) high in there (rebounding) overall, and to be outrebounded by eight is a big number for us. We know that’s a strength of ours and something that we’ve been emphasizing, and our numbers have been good lately through this stretch as we’ve been coming on. You look at the numbers – you go 0-for-11 from three, you get outrebounded – you’re not leaving yourself many other opportunities to find a way to win.”
