Georgia Tech Head Coach Josh Pastner
Opening statement:
“I thought it was a good game, there was some good stuff that we did. There are a couple of things we’ve got to clean up but it was good for our guys to get under the lights for the first time and be able to see real competition other than playing against ourselves for the last few months. We had some bright spots and some things we have to clean up, but we’ll get back to work on Tuesday and get back after it.”
On hitting 11 three-pointers in the game:
“When you make three’s everything looks better. The coach looks better, the fans are happy, the players are happy just making shots. Now, we’ve hung our hat on defense since we’ve been here, and today was a bit of an awkward game because [Georgia College] is smaller. Most teams we’re going to play are going to have a true center and a more traditional four at times. But I thought we got spread out and driven, so we’ve got to be better at guarding the ball. We were a little bit better in the second half. I didn’t think our transition defense in the first half was real effect. But when we’re making three’s that’s just a good thing. But our turnovers, we got a little sloppy at times and that ended up biting us in the butt.”
On giving a lot of guys an opportunity to play:
“It was a good opportunity for all of those guys to play, we were able to balance out the minutes. As we continue to move forward it is going to be hard to play ten guys, but it gives me and our staff an opportunity to evaluate. And it gives guys experience under the lights in a real game setting.”
On Evan Cole:
“Evan has been really productive all summer and fall. I’m a big believer in production and he’s produced. Even in our stats in practice, he’s rebounding and getting things done. He’s really transitioned well to the five spot, and he got to the free-throw line. He’s got to make more free-throws, he was 5-for-10, but he got to the line.”
On the pace slowing down in the second half:
“Subbing a lot kind of throws people off rhythm, but I also think our pace wasn’t as effective and part of it was more on Jose [Alvarado]. He had a lot of walk-ups and that ended up making us have a slower pace at times. So it was more on Jose than it was anybody. We need to be able to score or at least get the ball quickly up the floor after we get a stop. But I thought more of that was Jose not playing with the pace we needed to play with.”
On how pushing the pace will help create points:
“It doesn’t mean you’re going to score in the nineties every game, and making 11 three’s helps with that, but it is about just having more possessions and more opportunities. Because we’ve been such a good defensive team we want to take advantage of our defensive stops and score in transition. That’s been something we’ve worked a lot on to give us an opportunity to score more points.”
