Georgia Tech Post-Game Quotes (Game 21)
No. 9 North Carolina Tar Heels (16-4, 6-1 ACC) 77, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (11-10, 3-5 ACC) 54
January 29, 2019 • McCamish Pavilion • Atlanta, Ga.
Georgia Tech Head Coach Josh Pastner
Opening statement:
“They [North Carolina] are as good as any team in country. We had some great looks, they just didn’t go down and when Carolina is shooting what they shot from three and we’re shooting what we shot from three, it just makes hard. We have to get back at it. I told Jose [Alvarado] and Michael [Devoe], those two have to be better for us when they have the ball in their hands. In games when things get a little stressed, they have to stay locked in with the heart and toughness that we demand. Those guys have to continue to be better for us. Credit to Carolina, no time for woe is me, we play Florida State on Saturday. That’s a tough stretch, Duke, Carolina, and Florida State, but that’s the ACC. And we did a good job on the glass – that’s one thing we did that’s a positive. Back-to-back games we’ve done a good on the offensive board, for the most part.”
On the offense sputtering at times for stretches:
“I believe in player movement and ball movement and we’ve gotten away from it a tad bit. Part of it is we are playing too much in the post – AD [Abdoulaye Gueye] and James [Banks] playing together a lot and we are not moving as much as we did last year or the year before. We’ve tried to just really get that thing inside to those guys and maybe take out some movement and just try to play power basketball. Our best offense right now is playing through James [Banks] and AD [Abdoulaye Gueye] the more they can get touches, or even Evan [Cole] or Moses [Wright], that’s some of our best offense right now.”
On comparing the performances against North Carolina and against Duke:
“I thought the first half we were fine. I thought it was the second half that was a big issue. I just thought if you look at it when your three starting guards are 7-29 it’s just going to be hard and when Carolina shooting the way they shot it’s going to be hard. Michael Devoe, Jose Alvarado, and Curt [Curtis Haywood] had 14 rebounds between those three that’s a tremendous stat for our starting guards. It’s just going to be hard offensively if we’re not making shots and we had a lot of open looks. We had that stretch to start the game we could have been up 10-0. We just missed open shots and layups and that’s just a big deal. And against Duke we made them.”
On Alvarado’s and Devoe’s play during this tough ACC stretch:
“They [Jose Alvarado and Michael Devoe] are getting in the lane but they are getting sped up. We work on pivoting all the time and they have to be able to stop and “donut pivot” and throw the right pass. They get competitive and they want to do it themselves. We’re not built that way. And Jose, he plays so hard, but size-wise, when he goes in there, he’s in there with the trees. He has to set people in and then be able to find those kick outs for three’s. It’s a tough stretch, Duke and Carolina, and it does not get any easier with Florida State on Saturday.”
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement:
“We got a road win. We feel very good about that. It was a weird game. The first three or four possessions I thought we had great shots and made none of them. After that we took some bad shots and turned the ball over – just silly turnovers. We threw the ball out of bounds three times like a quarterback throwing between two receivers 10 yards apart trying to hope one of them would catch it. Eight turnovers in the first half – I was very disappointed in that. To miss 35 shots and get seven offensive rebounds… I was not pleased at halftime with that.
But we came out early in the second half, the same old thing I’ve said a lot, the ball started going in the basket and everything looked a lot better. Cam [Johnson] and Coby [White] made three’s early in the second half. At one point, I thought we had scored 15 or 16 points and the only points they’d had was a three on a second shot opportunity when we didn’t box out. It’s a road win for us, it’s a good win. You look at Cam [Johnson’s] line he went 8-for-10 from the floor and 4-for-6 from three with three assists and one turnover. Coby [White] had eight assists and two turnovers. Those two guys early in the second half were really something. I’ve never seen Luke Maye play a game like that so he got that game out of his system and we still won. I thought B-Rob [Brandon Robinson] did some good things when he came in. Nasir [Little] gave us some things when he came in. Overall, we’ve got to rebound the ball a lot better than we did tonight, but we got lucky and made shots.”
On Cameron Johnson’s second-half spark:
“It was needed. There’s no question, but I didn’t really care who it was. As I said, Cam and Coby [White] made most of them during that stretch. [Johnson] had a big guy guarding him out on the court and he wasn’t as comfortable coming out as far as Cam was going to shoot it. One of them was really deep and I didn’t like it at all until it went in. He made two three’s and then a layup. We also got our break going a little bit. In the first half we had nine first break points and 15 in the second half.”
On North Carolina’s defensive performance:
“I get so frustrated myself. [Georgia Tech] missed some easy shots. I think if you were to talk to [Georgia Tech head coach] Josh [Pastner], I don’t want to evaluate his team for him, but they had the ball on the block and the turn around shot over us four or five times and it just didn’t go in. That’s a problem we have – scoring inside. I think early in the second half they had some pretty good shots but they just didn’t go in. We gave up eight second chance points so that’s too many. We weren’t near as good defensively today as we were in practice yesterday.”
On scoring fast break points against Georgia Tech’s zone:
“I wanted us to push the pace. That’s the three things I put on the board: push the pace, make sure we stop their break, and rebound the ball on the board. We did one of those but it was good enough to really help us. A zone is hard to box out and we didn’t get in there and get any offensive rebounds.”
On following Virginia Tech win with a win tonight:
“We’ve won four in a row. We have a little momentum so it’s not just today and they’re four ACC wins which anyone will take. I’m always telling them that I didn’t start the season talking about winning today at Georgia Tech or at home against Notre Dame. I talked about us getting better the entire season and I think we’re doing some of that, but we didn’t show it today on the offensive boards.”
