March 8, 2014
Recap | Final Stats | GT Photo Gallery
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GEORGIA TECH COACH Brian Gregory
Opening Statement:
“There’s a few guys around this league, I’m certainly one of them, that can understand what James {Johnson} is going through. It’s been tough. When you can’t put out your entire team. That team has been besieged by injuries. You saw how good {Ben} Emelogu was today, he’s got a chance to be a really good player in this league. They’re just not the same team without those guys. At the same time you have to look at how hard the team plays. Do they compete and do they fight. They’ve done it. My hat’s off to [Johnson] and I give him a lot of credit. He’s been able to keep those guys together and keep everybody playing hard. I know that’s been a challenge. It’s also been a challenge for us.
“I feel good about the way it ended today. Our seniors were great, finished off a pretty good week, and we’re making some improvements, and you can see that with the 18 assists and 24 made baskets with only eight turnovers. We did a lot of good things today and played a lot of good basketball. Hopefully we’re feeling pretty good heading into Greensboro, all you can do is get ready for the next game. Those guys {seniors} have meant a lot to the program over the last three years. I know they’re excited about the next step.”
Team had a slow start making shots, but quickly improved:
“We knew they were going to play zone. You almost have to play zone to protect the inside guys, they’ve only got three post players right now. We got good looks and we weren’t making them. So you always wonder if the guys are going to get tight or panic a little bit. We didn’t do that. That’s a big step for us. It’s a completely different zone, you have to attack it a completely different way than you do Syracuse. We knew they were going to shorten up the game a little bit. They were successful in doing that, but that just meant our possessions were even more important. We got the ball inside the last eight minutes of the first half, those last two rounds were important for us. We won both those, stretched out that lead. We got some transition baskets, some second chance points and executed some of our set plays against the zone extremely well. We got the same looks in the second half, we just made them.”
Whether it was Trae Golden’s best performance since returning from the injury:
“Any time you have 14 points, eight assists and zero turnovers at the point guard spot, that’s pretty good. You can see even from last Sunday today you can see it. He made the runner today, he hadn’t made one of those in a month, and he had some explosiveness on that, and it was good to see. Plus he executed well in terms of getting us into our stuff so that was good to see.”
Having low turnover numbers for the last few games:
“I think Trae {Golden} coming back has been a big part of that, but also Corey is out there. Now you’ve got a second ball-handling guard out there, so that helps. I think Chris heading into this game has done a better job of handling the ball. Kam {Holsey} has done a good job with the ball. With our big guys that numbers are always going to be a bit skewed. We let our big guys make plays, they handle the ball quite a bit, whereas with some programs the bigs just sit on the blocks and as soon as the catch the ball they shoot it. Our guys make plays, and sometimes you get more turnovers because of that.”
On the team’s defensive performance:
“Overall I thought our defense was good. The only part of the game on defense I was disappointed with was with second chance points. I thought they hurt us on the glass. Sometimes their offense creates those avenues to rebound. We held them to 37 percent from the field, 26 from the three, our free throw defense was great with them at 56 percent there too. (Jarell) Eddie, we did a good job on him, because he’s a hell of a player. I thought Marcus (Georges-Hunt) was good. Kam {Holsey} was good, and with Kam sometimes his offense gets pushed to the side. The three men in this league are so good he’s forced to do a lot on the defensive end.”
Finally feeling that the roles of the team and the players are set:
“Unfortunately we’ve played 31 games, but because of guys out, guys in, guys out, guys in, haven’t really been able to set those roles. Now with the last two or three games it’s been those eight guys and they know their rotation, they know their roles. They’ve done a good job of executing.”
Being an efficient offensive team and Daniel Miller’s performance in that:
“We’re are much better offensively. Since Trae (Golden) coming back and Robert (Carter Jr.) coming back you have more offensive weapons. We are much more efficient offensively. I was hoping all the coaches in our league were watching that game. Daniel (Miller) is not overwhelming in terms of numbers, but when you watch a whole game with him and you see the stat line and you see the impact he’s had on the game, he’s one of the best players in this league. He’s had a great senior year, and the last couple games have just kind of highlighted that. He’s a very intelligent kid. He’s bought into the coaching, and he’s bought into being coached.”
On the seniors:
“Those three guys, and you can count Jason {Morris} in that, have been tremendous over the last three years. They bought into the coaching, and it was hard to buy into. You knew there were nights were things just weren’t going to go very well. I’m pleased with every aspect with them.”
VIRGINIA TECH COACH JAMES JOHNSON
Opening statement:
“Give Georgia Tech credit. They came in and were to play on a emotional day with Senior Day. They’ve got some guys that mean a lot to Georgia Tech – Daniel Miller and Kammeon Holsey have been around a long time and played a lot of basketball around here. They played well today.”
On Virginia Tech defense:
“I thought the first half we did a pretty decent job. In the second half, we gave up too many holes….I thought they did a real good job of making plays against our zone. Robert Carter is a tough matchup inside-out. Daniel Miller is a tough matchup. Trae Golden is a driver and can hit threes, they had a lot of guys make shots out there on the floor.”
Facing Georgia Tech defense:
“I thought we had some good looks, but I thought they did a good job o Devin Wilson. Any time Wilson tried to get to the basket, they did a good job stopping him. Bigs stayed on him and made it difficult for him. For the most part, we had good looks that we need to knock down.”
On Joey van Zegeren:
“That was one of things we’ve been doing the last few games, making a conscious effort to go inside. Even though they had some big bodies in there, it felt like we could still go inside to Joey. He can make some moves. He’s a little more mobile and move those guys around, and he did just that. He knocked a couple free throws down too.”
On facing Miami in ACC Tournament:
“We’ve got to find a way to score and manufacture some points. You play a team twice and beat them twice, there’s some confidence there. Also you have to put ourselves in their locker room, and they are going to be spitting fire ready to go. They are the defending champions.”
