Everything From Head Coach Damon Stoudamire After 82-72 Loss To Syracuse

All that Coach Stoudamire said to the media postgame

Jan 3, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Damon Stoudamire on the sideline against the Boston College Eagles in the second half at McCamish Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

After a tough loss at home to Syracuse, head basketball coach Damon Stoudamire talked to the media. Here is everything he had to say postgame.

Opening Statement…. 

“I thought today's game start,  I should say our start to the game was indicative of the whole first half. They start and get a lob dunk and we talked about different things. We just didn't do it starting from the first play. I thought this was the first game where us not making shots bled into our defense. The game kind of got away from us there in that first half. (Kiyan) Anthony came in  and I'm different. So it's different people in the room, I'm a little different.  Like the knowns are the known, but that 11 hurt us.  And I was saying, we can't let him come in and score. Like that hurt us that to me those 11 was just as crucial as anything else on the floor tonight.  You know and you know he came off the bench. He was locked in. He made jump shots and he did some good things and  you know Freeman had a good good one.  We just didn't do a good job of  keeping guys in front of us.  You know, proud of the guy, proud of the guys for the way they fought and came back.But again, I thought  us not making shots in the first half  bled into our defense and that put us at a deficit.” 

On what he seen in the stretch run at the end of the game…. 

The threes that we missed, you know, guys, I'm not gonna tell guys to quit you know, quit shooting shots that they've made consistently. So, you know, that's just part of it, you know, but I think honestly, more important for me is that we shouldn't have been in that position. You know, and probably again, the most disappointing thing is when we lose, it's the attention to detail and I take it personal. So  I'll take the hit. I am  just different when I think of basketball I don't think of what everybody else. I think of the little things that's why I mentioned Kiyan Anthony's buckets.  Most people don't want to look at that  you know because you look at the stat sheet there are  they did have  you know other performances but for me that hurt you know so  it's just the attention to detail. During that stretch, you know,  we missed a couple layups, you know, yeah, we missed some shots, but  you know, we come down, we had a couple opportunities where we could have got some stops.  Again, the attention to detail one time shot goes up, I think we down five or six, the ball goes out of bounds on us, man, We got to get that rebound  because that's a new shot clock,  you know, so that's way more important to me than saying a guy,  you know, miss a shot, that’s been making shots. I'm all right with that. I've never taken a guy out for missing a shot. I've never been disappointed at a guy for missing a shot. you know, I'm all right with that. I'm all right with what happened because that's who we've been.” 

On the challenge rule and his thoughts on it… 

“I only lost one challenge all year, and I knew it really. It was a bang bang one, so I didn't really know if we was gonna win it.  we've been good, but I guess you get a couple. I'm not even really for showing the rule. They were big plays as well too. So they helped us get extra possessions and we'll just try to keep being good at that, cuz it can go the other way. Now if you don't get it right, you lose a timeout.” 

On what he tells his guys when the team is in a hole and have little margin for era…. 

“The biggest takeaway for me in this game, was just, it's the first time all season. The offense affected our defense because  you know,  you can see it in the guys. We just played a game on Saturday, but we didn't shoot the ball that well, but we guarded and then the game came back to us, But tonight,  you can just see it in guys' faces.  I don't think that in those moments, it's a lack of not trying to do the right thing, but I just think that winning is hard, number one.  And so I always say this and people think I'm crazy, but again, I think about stuff different. When you win games or the more success you have, the  harder it is to not feel yourself, right?  And so even on them bad nights,  now to your point, if you don't have it, if you don't have it offensively, hey man, just let me be a connector tonight. If he got it going over here, let me make sure he doing so. Let  me do the right thing  until the game come back to me.  I think that's just being a little more savvy and understanding the assignment each and every game.  Hopefully we get better at that.  But tonight again, for me just the second half  was good from the standpoint that we fought because we definitely got down.  But we shouldn't have been in that hole again anyway.” 

On the on ball pressure defensively… 

“Well, we've been up the floor for most of the season. I think that tonight we did it out of urgency, obviously. It's part of our package. Again, when you gotta generate points and you have a hard time generating them,  like we did tonight, especially in the first half, then you gotta change, you gotta start doing different things. But  again, I say that our offense until recently hadn't been great. We were getting better with it. So again, the disappointing thing is that tonight was the first time I actually seen us missing shots and it affected us. I think it affected us because  obviously Syracuse making shots, it just kind of, was one after another, after another. Then  again, I say this,  you know, and this is again for me, I'm different.  I think a little different.  I would rather.  JJ Starling and Nait George pull up and make a jump shot, then somebody get it a dunk. Because what that does is it gets the team going.  That's like a pick six in football. You're getting the team going, you're getting guys going, and now  they're picking up the energy. And so now they're coming down on defense and now they're doing things. I hope that we learn from this game and understand that  we can't allow this to happen again if we want to be successful.” 

On not having Mouhamed Sylla and managing him not being and leaning more on Peyton Marshall… 

“It is what it is. It seems like it's been a whole lot of talk about everybody trying to manage guys being out with injuries and everything. But we just figured it out and try to figure it out on the run. I think tonight, Peyton picked up fouls but then I think the game was too fast, a little too fast for Cole tonight.  They played a little smaller. so we just decided to go smaller and do different things. But you're patchworking it. You're patchworking it, and you want to throw in a little more zone. But the problem was the game got away from us so we couldn't do it as much. That's what happens when you're in a situation like this. So,  Baye more than held his own. I thought he was fine.  He played more five tonight than he has in a long time based on Mo being out.  I think that that actually helped him. I thought he was effective.” 

On Ndongo being more effective in a small ball lineup… 

“I just thought I was Baye was a little more active more than anything. I thought he was more active.The biggest thing with him and I've been preaching to him is, he'll continue to work himself into it, but he just has to continue to work his stamina. He gotta get vitamins, get a little more vitamins. If y'all don't know what that is, that's just working out. So you gotta get his vitamins.You know, it's like moving all the time. You know what I know? Hopefully,  you know, cause I didn't even know if he was going to come back because I knew he didn't mess his knee up, but what happened is it looked like he just came down on the floor, boom. And it's just one of things, you know, it's just. Hopefully he doesn't have any stiffness and nothing in the morning because to me, it'd be big for him to just go on the floor and do 20-25 minutes of work, you know, because he has to build himself up.  I think that who've been around him,  we've all seen  how he comes along,  you know, as the year comes.  I mean, as the year keeps going. So,  you know, that's the thing. But, you know, I'm not going to say that he was more effective because of the small ball, I just thought he was a little more active than that. I thought when he came back in the game, he was actually more engaged than he was before he went out, so.

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