Georgia Tech Head Coach Josh Pastner
Opening statement:
“First off, I obviously want to give a lot of credit to Duke and Coach K and their program. They’ve got a great team, a lot of great players. Obviously, he’s one of the greatest coaches, maybe the greatest ever to coach, regardless of sport. So, you’ve got to give Duke a lot of credit, they’re very, very good and obviously a legit team that can win a National Championship.”
“All you can ask for is a chance to win the game, we had some chances. I will say we’ve continued to get better. Our guys have always fought and competed. We got down 11 in the first half and they scrapped, clawed, punched, kicked, fought for us to give ourselves a chance to win the game against an elite team like Duke. I was proud of our guys’ effort. And again, like I said, we continue to get better. We had some turnovers in the first half and that bit us in the butt. We had 10 in the first half and that’s where they got their 11-point lead. We fought back, got the lead, but those turnovers, again, just end up biting you in the rear.”
“James Banks, back-to-back games where he’s had a great motor. I thought Moses Wright played his tail off. He and James obviously missed a lot of short shots, but I can live with that in a sense because they played so hard. Everything we talk about is motor. Michael Devoe dove on the floor multiple times, came up with some great 50/50 balls. Bubba Parham, great 50/50 balls. Obviously, Jose [Alvardado] was tough and hard-nosed. Obviously, our guard play, we’ve just got to limit some of those turnovers, but I was proud of all the guys and we’ve gotten better. That’s a great team that we played, a team that’s good enough to win the National Championship.”
On running out of steam offensively over the final three minutes of the game:
“Yeah, we probably got a little tired because we exerted so much energy to get back. I was just talked to Marvin Lewis and I was telling him, it would be nice if there was somewhere you could steal some minutes, maybe give a little rest to those guys. It’s just hard when you get yourself down against a good team like this. You lose your margin of error and you’re struggling to score and then what happens is you just fight and claw to get yourself back in front, and you do, and you exert so much energy that it’s hard to sub at that time because you’re just kind of moving. But it is what it is. We missed a lot of short shots right at the rim. And all you can ask for is an opportunity to get there. We missed a couple of open looks, and when I say you could live with it, in a sense, as a coach, is all you can ask for is you give yourself a chance to win the game and we had some opportunities.”
On the difference it makes having Jose Alvarado back in the lineup:
“With Jose I think we’re a pretty good basketball team, and without Jose we were just highs and lows. We were maybe a little better than average. And that’s nothing against our guys, because we have really good players, it’s just Jose does a lot for us that doesn’t show up in the box score with his leadership, toughness, he helps other guys on the floor. So, without Jose it just puts so much pressure on a guy like Michael Devoe to have to defend, rebound, score, and a guy like Bubba Parham, he’s got to do so many other things and other guys have to do so many other things. It just takes the pressure off of guys.”
On defending Duke’s transition offense:
“They are so fast. I thought Cassius Stanley was so fast, what an incredible athlete. And Tre Jones is obviously really good. Some of those fast breaks were based on our turnovers and a couple times that we scored they were just right down our throat the other way. But I told both announcers who were doing the TV game today, I said they’re an elite – probably the best transition offensive team in the country. I don’t think anyone is better than them in how fast they are in transition offense.”
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening statement:
“Just a heck of a game. They’re a very good basketball team. Now that they’ve got their whole team together that’s their sixth game… I think they can play with anybody. That’s a big time win for us because their crowd was great and they were really good. They knocked us back at the beginning of each half and our kids responded. Our defense the last 12 minutes of the first half was outstanding. I thought Javin [DeLaurier] gave us a big boost in how he ran the court. Then, in the second half, they came out and we gave them nine quick points and it looked like the whole thing was going to turn. Our kids showed some amazing toughness. They really hung in there. Cassius [Stanley], who was not playing as well as he has been playing, played great. He responded [by] coming off the bench after a timeout and made some sensational plays. I just think our kids were real tough. They made some big plays, Tre [Jones] and Jordan Goldwire defensively. Tre hit a big bucket. One of the big buckets was the offensive rebound on the free throw by Vernon [Carey Jr.] which gave us a two-possession lead and then our defense was good. Their big guys really hammered us on the boards, but they were 10-for-31 [shooting] and that worked out well. We beat a really good team in a very tough environment and both teams played really hard tonight. It’s a heck of a win for our kids.”
On Javin DeLaurier’s late substitution into the game:
“Just some energy on defense. A big change in the first half… we had to change how we defended the ball-screen. They were just killing us. We read it or trapped it and that worked for the [first] half. In the second half, we didn’t do it as well and they kind of responded. Then we had to change a little bit with that. Jack [White] made a couple big plays – the three but also a block. It’s the way our team’s been. It’s like a collection of guys hopefully doing enough to come up with a big-time… that’s a big-time win tonight.”
On Duke’s successful defense around the rim:
“Not with our rebounding, but yes overall. They also had to defend the ball-screen with [Jose] Alvarado. And Alvarado is a very, very crafty guard, so that’s not easy for a big guy to help with that and still play the big. So overall, good. But it was going to be where they win some and we win some – it was that kind of game. I thought both teams played so hard. The crowd was great. I thought they really supported their team and that made the win even a little bigger for us.”
On Cassius Stanley coming off the bench:
“He wasn’t playing aggressively. He’s going to have a ‘zero’ stat line, except they would have gotten pluses. For a freshman, especially, to turn that around in a game – an away game. That’s huge. That shows a lot about that kid. He made some sensational plays, some sensational plays. He ran the court a couple times big time. Javin in the first half and him in the second… they differentiated us. We won that round, so to speak, in a 15-round fight.”
On Vernon Carey Jr. facing James Banks:
“I think James Banks’ length will bother a lot of people. For Vernon overall, I thought he did a really good job. It’s his 15th college game and also he now is the focal point of people trying to stop us. That’s a lot… Vernon’s done a great job. In the second half, we were not strong with the ball. They came out strong and we’re catching it with one hand and all of a sudden – boom – they got it and go. Once he put two hands on it, it was a little bit different.”
