Jan. 4, 2018
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GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH JOSH PASTNER
Opening statement:
“First of all, a great win against a very, very good Miami team. A team that’s obviously well-coached by one of the best coaches in the game (Jim Larrañaga). They’re a very good basketball team, so that’s a very good win for us. As I’ve told everybody, and I’ve felt this, we were going to be a little rocky in November and December, but I would hope people judge us post-Christmas. Unfortunately, they’ve got to count the games pre-Christmas. But really, our team should be judged post-Christmas because we’ve been injured, we’ve had guys out, we haven’t been able to practice with our full complement of guys. Just yesterday, for the first time since our first day of official practice that our entire team was able to stretch together. … Today was a good sign of us improving and getting better, to beat a very, very good team – a top-15 team. And we did it through defense.”
On withstanding Miami’s runs:
“They were going to make a run. They’re a top-15 team in the country for a reason. But we withstood it and we were able to make some shots late. During that stretch where we just couldn’t score, we had some looks. We really had some good looks, we just missed them.”
On Georgia Tech’s defense:
“Miami had some shots that they missed. Our calling card has been defensively. We were an elite defensive team last year. We weren’t good or great, we were an elite defensive team last year. And I thought, there was that stretch there, where we just weren’t that good this year [defensively]. We started off the year really good, then we had a three- or four-game stretch where we just weren’t that good defensively.”
On the McCamish Pavilion crowd:
“It’s our fourth top-15 win [in 20 ACC games]… That’s a great credit to our crowd. I thought the crowd was really good again tonight and had great energy in the building. To have a really good win against a top-15 team in Miami, it’s great for us.”
On whether it’s Georgia Tech’s best game of the season:
“This and Northwestern. We played really well against Northwestern defensively. But yes, this was the most complete game from start to finish, in a sense. Northwestern, we were really good as well. I thought we were going to play well today – I didn’t know if we were going to win or not – but I felt we were going to play well because I felt we were getting better.”
MIAMI HEAD COACH JIM LARRAÑAGA
Opening statement:
“I didn’t think we were very sharp tonight at all. You can see by the stat sheet that they only made one three [pointer]. They were 1-for-10 [from three] for the entire game and yet they scored at the rim which was exactly the defensive strategy to stop. [We were] trying to stop them from getting their driving layups, their cutting layups and their post-ups. When you’re not able to do that and the other team is able to execute their man offense the way they did that’s a great concern. Then offensively we could not find the open man. We just kept turning the ball over. Eighteen turnovers and 12 assists is not what we’re looking for.”
On his team’s hot-and-cold stretches:
“We went cold and stayed cold as far as I was concerned. We turned the ball over needlessly. When we cut the lead to four, we had three-straight turnovers. We dribbled into the lane and threw it, they took it right off of our guy and then we had the ball right in the three-second lane and they stripped us. That’s not good basketball. We should play a lot better than that. [When] the game is on the line, you need to take care of the ball. You can’t be turning it over.”
On D.J. Vasiljevic’s playing time:
“He didn’t look like he was looking to shoot. The first shot he took, he made the three. Then after that, he didn’t look like the aggressive two-guard, the shooter that every time he catches it, he’s a threat to shoot. His body language was not good. He made a defensive effort that greatly upset me because we had gone over it and over it and over it. He let the guy get a layup when he shouldn’t have.”
On Miami’s bench technical foul:
“I have no idea. It wasn’t on me. It wasn’t my assistants. He was pointing to somebody down at the end of the bench who jumped up. You’ll have to ask him. To me, that’s ridiculous.”
On Bruce Brown’s defense:
“We had so many plays that were almost great plays. They had a fast break and Bruce stole a lob pass, but couldn’t hold on to it and he saved it right into a Georgia Tech player’s hands for a layup. Sometimes you’ve got to be lucky [rather] than being just good.”
On Miami’s run after the timeout at 9:16 in second half:
“They just missed a couple shots that gave us a chance to get out on the fast break and we scored in transition before their defense got back.”
On trying to stop Josh Okogie:
“He had 30 points. We did a hell of a job on him. He’s averaging 18 [points] per game and our whole focus was to stop him and [Ben] Lammers and we didn’t do either.”
