Georgia Tech Post-Game Quotes (Game 14)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-5, 1-0 ACC) 92, Wake Forest Demon Deacons 79 (7-6, 0-1 ACC)
January 5, 2019 • McCamish Pavilion • Atlanta, Ga.
GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH JOSH PASTNER
Opening statement:
“First off, [I] just want to say, great win for Georgia Tech. Just an awesome win. The crowd was outstanding, so give a great shout-out to the fans who ignited us with tremendous energy. I thought Jose [Alvarado] got the first 50/50 ball on the floor and it just got the crowd going. We are very, very appreciative of the fans. It was just an outstanding win. Wake Forest is a very good basketball team. Coach [Danny] Manning is one of the best coaches in the country and, obviously, I think their team is very good. They’re very well-coached. They are young like we are young, so to beat a well-schooled and a very good Wake Forest team, it’s a good win for us. I was really proud of our guys.”
On Georgia Tech’s team defense:
“I thought our defensive intensity and activity was at a high level. That’s who we are and that’s what we do. We ended the non-conference [ranked] 11th in the country in field-goal percentage defense [and] 11th in the country in three-point percentage defense. We were 26th in the country in defensive efficiency for all teams in nonconference play. That’s a good defensive team and we need to carry that into ACC play. We really guarded at a high level. We got six three-stops-in-a-row today. They hit some shots late, one at the end of the first half and a couple at the end of the second half – that’s the ACC. Other than that, our defense, for the most part, was really good and active. All nine guys that played contributed at a high level.”
On Michael Devoe:
“I think Michael Devoe continues to get better. You can see him get better. He’s getting more comfortable. Part of it is, when he missed those six weeks early in the season because of the injury, when you’re a freshman and you sit out six weeks and you don’t do anything, including zero conditioning, you’re going to be off track. It’s going to take time and he’s starting to get the hang of it. He had some big threes for us today, which was really good for us.”
On Georgia Tech’s free-throw shooting:
“The reason why the game never got into a pressure situation was because we were 28-of-34 from the free-throw line, which is 82.4 percent. So we made our free throws and, in this league, when the margin of error is zero and you have to be near perfect in all those areas, free-throw shooting becomes critical. You have to make free throws and we’re not a team that’s a juggernaut that can just overpower you. So we have to take full advantage of the scoring opportunities that we can and that includes from the free-throw line.”
WAKE FOREST HEAD COACH DANNY MANNING
Opening statement:
“I thought, with Georgia Tech, they went to a matchup zone fairly early in the game and I thought we attacked it well partially. But there were too many open possessions for us where we weren’t necessarily in the spots we needed to get to, or passes being made [where] instead of going to meet the pass, we kind of waited and they were able to get a hand or a deflection. We have to do a better job of going to meet the ball and also being strong with the ball when they come down and when they trapped us in certain situations.”
On employing a different defensive scheme against Georgia Tech:
“Well, we wanted to make them make some shots from the perimeter. And I thought, as far as that goes, they made six threes. Obviously, you hope that you contest and do better than that, but that was the thought process: Make them make some shots from the perimeter. We had a tough time guarding [James] Banks. So, we wanted to show a little bit more resistance in the paint in that regard. And then late in the game, it’s the situation of we’re down and we’re playing catch-up and we need to try to speed the game up. So we need to trap and try to get the ball back and then, offensively, you need to try to score when the clock is stopped.”
On the late-game fouling:
“Well, you don’t want a lot of time to go off the clock. When we started that, we only had four team fouls. In order to get the ball back, they had to shoot free throws. We had to put ourselves in the situation where they were in the bonus and getting to the free-throw line. But it was also a chance for us to be aggressive and try to come up with a steal.”
On going with a three-guard lineup:
“I thought June [Sharone Wright, Jr.] was really good at being aggressive and hitting the gap, hitting the seam in that zone. I also thought Brandon [Childress] was shooting the ball well and I thought one of those two guys [Wright, Jr. and Torry Johnson] could hit a seam and kick it out to Brandon for a shot.”
On if Georgia Tech’s momentum to finish the first half took a toll on Wake Forest:
“You always want to finish out the halves right and we didn’t out the first half to our liking. We have to be a lot more disruptive on the defensive end and present more resistance in terms of letting [Georgia Tech] execute the way that they did. We have to try to take something away.”
On if Georgia Tech’s James Banks presented more than expected:
“It’s not to be disrespectful, but no, from the standpoint that I’ve watched him for a while. I know what type of player he is. He’s a unique big. He’s a big guy, but he’s mobile – he has good bounce and he’s active. And he has good hands. Big guys like that are hard to find.”
