Feb. 12, 2009
– Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt
On the loss…
In the first half, I thought Virginia Tech was much more aggressive than we were at getting to the offensive boards. I think they had nine offensive rebounds at halftime. That’s an area that we normally do better than our opponents in. Their guys also shot the ball well. I was disappointed in that. The other thing is that we weren’t strong around the basket. I think they attempted 12 free throws in the first half and we attempted four. There were times when we had them shot faked and we didn’t go through the defender and draw contact. I give Virginia Tech credit for being much more aggressive than us in the first half, which produced a 10 point lead for them. In the second half, I thought we were far more aggressive. Every coach is going to have a gripe, but at 55-52, they got to the foul line four-straight times. Delaney and Vassallo made eight-out-of-eight free throws and we scored one basket. That pushed it back to a nine-point lead and that was tough for us to overcome. Again I wish I could’ve seen a couple of those calls, but again I’m not going to argue. We had our chances to win this ballgame.
On making a run in the second half…
Well we stopped throwing it inside as much as we wanted to. That might have stymied us a little bit, but we did make a couple of threes down the stretch. Our pressure definitely bothered them. However, when they were having trouble scoring from the floor, the fouls really gave them a lot of relief. They got their two best free throw shooters up there and they made eight. And then Thorns, we just tried to gamble and extend the game and hope that he would miss one and he didn’t. He made his too. That was tough for us. They were having a hard time scoring from the floor. They shot 37 percent; that’s a pretty good number, but you just can’t put them on the foul line when you have them on the ropes like that. We gave them a little space.
On falling to 1-9 in the ACC …
We’ll figure it out. I’m disappointed in our record. I’m disappointed that we haven’t pulled some of these out, but I’m not disappointed in our effort in practice or in games. That’s how we practice everyday and we get after it hard. We just need a break here or there. Whether it’s a bounce of a ball or a missed call or shot dropping or a shot missing, that’s what we need. Our guys keep fighting every game.
Virginia Tech Head Coach Seth Greenberg
On the win…
That’s a good win. They’re a very athletic, dangerous team. They’ve been in every game that they’ve played. They play extremely hard. I think that the thing that I’m most proud of is our ability to rebound the basketball. I thought we did a pretty good job overall rebounding the ball. First half, Jeff Allen was just a monster rebounding the ball. It seemed like every time the ball was up in the crowd, he would be the first one to it. Again, we got more guys contributing, which is so important. I thought our guys did a really good job in the first half executing. They made the game more of a scrum and then we didn’t do a very good job of executing. We did enough good things. We could have dealt ourselves a little bit bigger cushion and we had that one stretch where we couldn’t make a free throw, but overall it’s a good win. To be 6-3 in this league is good. Hopefully we can build on it. We’ve got two very tough road games coming up and we’re going to have to play better to have a chance to win. We’ve got to get a lot better.
On using the 2-3 zone in the second half…
We were in foul trouble and we were having a hard time guarding the dribble. Every game isn’t specific. Everything isn’t personnel. They’re not a great three-point shooting team. They’re more of a driving team. We didn’t want them to get quick post-ups. They were hurting us just ducking and we had to make an adjustment. I thought the 2-3 zone was huge for us down the stretch. Obviously, that’s not my personality, but we were in severe foul trouble and we weren’t doing a very good job of defending the ball. They were getting the ball into the low post too easily, which has been a problem recently. I thought it could buy us some time and that’s why I went to it. It did buy us some time. It made them get the ball reversed, pitch it around the perimeter. It took away some passing lanes and getting the ball into the post. It wasn’t a hands-up harry 2-3 zone; it was an aggressive, quick, alert 2-3 zone and we did a pretty good job of rebounding the ball. I was really proud of our guys on that. It’s something we spent a little bit of time on yesterday. I just thought it was something that we would need.
On the team effort…
I thought Bell was really active on the boards. He got two or three deflections in the zone with his arms. I thought Dorenzo (Hudson) did a really good job. Poor guy can’t just get one to finish around him. He had a few really good scoring opportunities and had two really good drives, but just couldn’t finish. But Bell was active with his length and that’s very positive for us. Cheick (Diakite) was active and finishing plays around the basket. Jeff (Allen) got us off to a great start and Malcolm (Delaney) makes free throws.
On rebounding against Georgia Tech…
Well he (Gani Lawal) was a focal point of everything. He’s so quick. We showed the guys a three or four minute edit on offensive rebounding and transition and how he gets early post-ups. I told the guys that this was a man’s game today. If you weren’t going to be a man today, you weren’t going to rebound the ball. You had to step up and bow your neck and stick your nose in there and find a way to come up with a rebound. In the first half, Jeff (Allen) was unbelievable at that. When Jeff (Allen) jumps up and gets nine and then you get seven from Cheick (Diakite) and seven from Bell, that’s helps you a little bit. The perimeter guys were coming back and rebounding the ball. I think Jeff (Allen) got us off to a really great start rebounding the ball.
