Jan. 18, 2013
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Georgia Tech Head Coach Brian Gregory
Opening Statement:
“Give Coach and Duke a ton of credit. I thought we played extremely hard and competed, which was our number one objective. I thought they matched that especially in the second half. They have two premier players, not just in this league, but in the country in [Mason] Plumlee and [Seth] Curry. I think Curry is a little banged up still, but I thought he played extremely well in that second half. I thought our guys played with great energy, great intensity, pretty good toughness in a tough environment. Those young guys got a little baptism under fire today, but I thought they responded pretty well. We just got to get back to work, because at this particular point we are getting better but to compete for 40 minutes against a quality team like Duke you have to do a couple of things a little better. You have to shoot better from the free-throw line, you have to take care of the ball. Other than that, I thought a lot of aspects we wanted to get done we accomplished. Give them credit. They are in a tough situation with [Ryan] Kelly out, they are a much different team with him out. I talked to him a little before and after the game, hopefully he can get back soon because it is a team that is obviously elite not only in our league but in the country as well.
On decision to start freshman Marcus Georges-Hunt:
“Just felt that the last couple of days, to give him a shot. I think for the last two or three games he has played better, he has been more aggressive. He had a lull there right before finals, I think all freshmen do sometimes. He wasn’t aggressive, wasn’t playing hard, wasn’t playing with confidence. The last couple of games I thought he did. He has earned it because of his practice habits. He obviously played extremely well today. He made a gazillion mistakes out there too, but his competiveness was good, his aggressiveness was good. I think you can see down the road he will be an exceptional player in this league.”
On game plan to double team Mason Plumlee:
“Yeah, it was and every time we didn’t do it they scored. We picked our poison with that. I thought we did a great job with our Plumlee coverage. We have multiple guys that can guard him. I say that, try to guard him. I thought we did a good job. If he goes 7-for-20 with five offensive rebounds and we cover up three or four times when he was able to kick it out for an open three, it might have been a different game. Not a lot of teams have the physical toughness inside to be able to do that and I thought we did a good job. I thought Daniel [Miller], Robert [Carter], for a freshman, and Kam [Kammeon Holsey] when he was in there, I thought did a really good job of that. Give him credit, he was 2-for-12 in the first half and he responded with 5-for-8 in the second. A couple of those were offensive rebounds. How many pure post moves did he make? Probably two or three the whole night. I thought that was pretty good coverage.”
On calling two timeouts late in the first half:
“I only used two, because I couldn’t use all four. You knew they were going to make a run and they made an 8-2 run. I was disappointed in the end of that first half, in those last four minutes they outscored us 8-2. They are a very opportunistic offensive rebounding team. We had some defensive rebounds and they poke it out of your hand. They stay on the glass. We didn’t do as good a job of that in the last four minutes of the first half. They got a couple of baskets out of that, started off with a Curry three off two offensive rebounds. We did a great job of scrambling, forced them to miss two shots and didn’t come up with the ball. Sometimes in the position we are in as a program, we just never seem to catch a break on those plays. That is what happened. To start the second half, we started off with a wide open shot on really good execution on the play. We had a layup and we hit a three. The problem was each of those misses, the missed layup and the missed jump shot led to an open basket on the other end. So the first four possessions we came up with three points and we could have had seven. We competed hard and sometimes young guys lose their composure a little bit. You saw a little bit of that, which is understandable, but right now in our program we have to make that unacceptable. That is part of the process.”
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“We are pleased with the second half. This is a huge adjustment for us right now with Ryan [Kelly] being out. It’s a whole different thing, and because we are Duke everyone’s talking about redemption or struggles. Look we have a new team, whether you want to write about it or not. Those three kids are three of the best players in the country: Mason [Plumlee], Ryan [Kelly] and Seth [Curry]. We are managing Seth the whole year, and Ryan goes out. Even in a practice, we don’t play Miami until next Wednesday but Seth will only be able to practice once. Someone said, ‘well you got a lot of work to do,’ well OK. We do. We always have a lot of work to do but it is tough to create a continuity with a new group when you have one practice. That is the situation we are in and again there is no definitive time for Ryan when we can say he is going to be back at this time, so we have to move on. I thought Amile [Jefferson] did an amazing job for us tonight, 10 rebounds and his defense was terrific. And Rasheed [Sulaimon] had his best performance since Temple. For a lot of freshman it is tough to keep playing really well, but he had a month where he just wasn’t playing up to the level that he can play at, but tonight he did. He has practiced that way for the last three days and it paid off. Those two freshmen really helped us tonight.”
On Emotion During the Game:
“I think I give emotion a lot during my 33 years here at Duke so I am going to do whatever I think my team needs. I did that in 1980 and I should do it in 2013, so I thought that’s what my team needed, it’s what I gave.”
On Amile Jefferson’s Emergence:
“He is a good player. When you are playing behind Mason [Plumlee] and Ryan [Kelly] there just aren’t the minutes. But he has been good in practice, we tried a little bit to see if he could go on the perimeter, but then people would really play off. So he has maintained a great attitude, and he started the second half and looked like a kid who has started for a while. He really played well for us and gives us some energy. Gave us energy. Rasheed [Sulaimon] gaves us energy tonight too.”
On Offensive Struggles in First Half:
“I think part of it is spacing, I just think it is continuity. You get accustomed for 15 games to play with Ryan [Kelly] and Mason [Plumlee]. For Quinn [Cook], dribbling down the court, you have three really good options. And when Rasheed [Sulaimon] is playing well you have four. Well, that makes your job as a point guard to facilitate for those four guys. Rasheed is not playing well, or he wasn’t. Ryan is out, and, Mason didn’t score inside in the first half. He did a heck of a job in the second half. And all of a sudden how you are a point guard for that group is different. We have to run more offense. Not just play offense. When you have these weapons you kind of play offense, and you can read a little bit easier. When you are with our group scoring becomes a lot more difficult and Quinn has got to do a different job as a point guard with this group and that is part of what we have to learn. We have to learn that.
On the Break Before the Miami Game:
“Again, I think I mentioned, between now and then Seth [Curry] will practice once. So, we can practice, but you don’t create the continuity, like we already had a continuity going with Seth practicing like that because of the experience of those three guys together. That kind of made up for some of the lack of practice time. Now it is different. People can focus more on Seth. He did a heck of a job tonight, you can focus more on him and on Mason [Plumlee], how we get them open. In the second half, there were a couple of things we did for the very first time, that we didn’t even practice, because we are kind of learning about our team and at a time out, you just say let’s run this, and all of a sudden out of a timeout Seth got a three, you know stuff like that. We’ve got to find a little more about our group and how to get them open.
On Potential of Foul Trouble with Ryan Kelly out:
“Yeah good point. Like not committing dumb fouls. We’ve got to be careful, I mean Mason [Plumlee] is the primary guy, he’s got to stay away from foul trouble, but he’s still got to play defense. He is in a highly physical area there where you can get a lot of fouls, and you can’t, like today he got a foul on a dribble hand-off. You can’t do that. Those type of things. He has been pretty good, but he has got to be very disciplined.”
On Halftime Talk:
“I thought we were hesitant to shoot, and no team of mine should be that way. I let our guys shoot, so if you are stopping yourself from shooting, there is something wrong. And I thought a big bucket for us was right away, I mean Quinn [Cook] didn’t even look for his shot in the first half, and then he came out and hit that three and that kind of got us going. Amile [Jefferson] at the end of the half hitting that two helped a lot. So we ended the half and started the second half pretty well.”
