All That Damon Stoudamire Said After 11th Consecutive Loss For The Yellow Jackets

Head coach Damon Stoudamire talked to the media after the Yellow Jackets 11th consecutive loss. Here is everything he had to say.

Opening Statement……

“Now it's the seniors, Kowacie, Lamar and Chas, wish they could have got a win on senior day, but. It's kind of like the same old song after a while. In reverse, we started the game off well. We did some good things, but because of the way the season's been going, you don't expect a blowout. So they're gonna make a run. Cal is a good team. But we managed, we got through the first half, and we took some hits, but we kept going. To start the second half, I didn't think we were as locked in. We had some defensive errors. They started to spread our defense out a lot. We weren't connected the same way on switches and things of that nature. Wasn't pulled in off the ball. So they capitalized on that. And then the biggest thing is we had 10 turnovers in the second half, to only four assists. I think that hurt us and there was some live ball turnovers in That was pretty much the game from there.

On what allowed California to get to the basket more…

“I just didn't think we executed the game plan. You have to be pulled in. It was a couple of times when we had some miscues where guys just walked in for layups. You gotta be in a stance, you gotta prepare, they ran the same play. We've seen that play 100 times. We go over it, but sometimes it happens that way. But then again, guys gotta be in stance and you gotta take a little pride in what you're doing, because that's what time of the year it is. I've been in these situations before. My team, really can't understand if I tried to break it down to them. But a game like this, you could have really hurt Cal's season. They lost the pit the other night, and they lose to it if they had lost tonight, then they probably wouldn't be a bubble team. And this time of the year, we're not mathematically in it. So theoretically, this is the last couple of games of the season that we have. You should go out, you should play for free. Hadn't had this experience in college, but in the pros, that's what we used to do. Towards the end of the year, man, you just go out there, you just play free, you have fun. I got lucky, I beat the 72-win Bulls.

I told those guys, gotta have fun. They not the 72 win bulls. But at the same time too, you can spoil their hopes if you do the right thing. We just didn't do that for whatever reason. We've shot ourselves in the foot pretty much all season, whether it was on the offensive side of the ball, defensive side of the ball to kind of put us in deficits in the game.”

On if the team still has pride and is fighting in the season…

“The thing that comes off is you know you have to be able to look your teammate in the eye. You know, and you have to know that he's there for you. That has to be every game. It has to be every possession, even when it's not a great possession. You can't waver in your trust in your teammates. A lot of it comes down to trust at the end of the day to trust. When you can't execute on the floor. There are many times when, as a player, I talk guys through the whole game. Sometimes you do that. But to be able to do that, you gotta know what we're doing wholeheartedly. You just can't know your position. And so at times we get a little bit of that. They definitely haven't quit. They don't know how to fight through it. When you're trying to do something. and get wins when, get a win, not wins, but just get a win. You can't cheat the game, so you gotta rebound with two hands. I think it was a four-point game. We don't get the possession; the ball goes out of bounds on us. You just can't do that. You gotta honor the game. If somebody, you're going for a layup, and somebody comes in front of you, you just gotta keep it simple, make the simple play. It comes back to trust and em I think that's, if I had to use a word, that's a little bit of why we're in this position.”

On the message to the game with one final game left in the season…

“You know, I haven't even gotten to that point yet because it's really weird. I've been in coaching. I've never had this happen to me in coaching. So I don't, I'm not used to where we're at. You know, the one thing in this position is it's a humbling position to be in if you've never been in that position. Like my journey is on Google. I've been through a lot, and man, can tell you nothing compared to this. What I feel right now as the coach of Georgia Tech, nothing compares to it. I haven't experienced this before. So it makes you understand now this is what it really looks like because this is the bottom. You have to always come and you gotta, and you gotta sit and stand up tall for your team. Because at the end of the day, right, if they see you waver, then they waver. Each and every day, you gotta find a way to pick, pick it, pick yourself up to come pick them up. So the message that I have for them come Saturday, and it's the last game of the season. I don't know yet, but I'll figure that out, you know, because. We got a group of guys up there that is beat down right now. What I wanna do is I wanna encourage, wanna nurture, and I gotta get them to the finish line. That's the goal right now. oh whatever that might be, when I get to that point, I'm pretty sure to be good, because I'm pretty good with it.

On spending three years with Kowacie Reeves…

“When he walked in the door, he had the dreads and the long hair and all the different things. then truth be told, the first workout he ever had, he worked out for 10 minutes, and he threw up. From there, he just got better every day as a player. He's an even better person. I think that the person is better than the basketball player. I think the person has a lot in store as he moves forward in life. You know, he's one of those kids that, you know, Georgia Tech alumnus, just the institution, you know, should be lucky to have a guy that has graduated from here that's gonna represent them in the right way. And he's been really good. He's a different kid. Two summers ago, I think it was, two summers ago, he went to Spain on an exchange trip for one of his classes here at Tech. Nobody does that. Not a basketball player. He's written two books. So he's really deep. The one thing that I always tell him, you know, getting back to basketball, you know,, if he aspires to play at the next level, you know, he's going to have to find a balance, so to speak, you know, because, you know, that's the thing about, about basketball, you know, about being a professional, I should say you either are or you aren't. There's no grey area with it. If he can figure that out, he can move on from here and do some good things. But it's been really good having him around. He's a first-class kid, comes from a first-class family. So it's been a pleasure to coach him over the last three years.”

On how much it hurts to not be in the ACC tournament and to make sure he is back next season to turn it around…

“I mean, just like anybody would, you think about it a lot. I don't internalize it, but I just sit back , and I reflect a lot. I'm honest. There has to be an honesty with it., I say this at the players, can't go to bathroom in the dark. You gotta turn on the light, look in the mirror. So you have to reset it. You have to reset it. And again, you have to look at what you need to do to do those things and get the right fits in and all the different things that come with it. There's a lot that comes with it because even on the floor, know, everybody sees the product, it's more to it than just that. I think about the whole as someone that's a leader. You know, I had somebody actually ask me about what you just basically asked. I said, well, you you have to understand, and I said it earlier, this humbles you.

“It's not that I thought I was the best coach in the world; it does not matter because there's a toughness that comes with this. There's a competitive spirit that you have to have. It's proven in college that you don't have to have the best players to win. Sometimes you just gotta play hard on a consistent basis. You gotta have a group that understands that each and every day. And there can't be any wavering in the convictions of it. In terms of the structure of how I see it, you have to find people that fits that structure. That's all I really think about. That's the big picture of it because at the end of the day, I understand what business we're in and I'm all right with that. So that's why I come up here. Each and every day or each and every game, I should say, when I'm asked the questions, I'm all right with answering. I don't get mad, I don't do none of those things because that's not really gonna do anything. My whole thing is to coach, to lead, to mentor, to hopefully have a positive impact on these guys when they move forward from here. Understanding that the left-hand column and the right-hand column dictate sometimes what is really all about.”

On Baye Ndongo…

“Yeah, I thought Baye was uncharacteristic with the turnovers. The first time we played them, he did a really good job. I just thought he was pressing, that threw us off, you know, because a lot of times we got to run and generate offense through him. It's not necessarily about him scoring all the time. It's just generating offense through him. So when that didn't happen, you can see him get a little down on himself. I thought he missed the layup up in there, so he really got down on himself, and he has some, again, some turnovers. So that's gonna hurt us. Again, our margin of error is small, so we can't afford to have those things happen. I think if he doesn't play well, at times we don't have nowhere else to look. So I do think that that hurts.”