Everything From Head Coach Damon Stoudamire After Loss At Home To Pittsburgh

Head coach Damon Stoudamire talked to the media after a deflating loss. Here is everything he had to say to the media on Wednesday night.

Opening Statement…

Big credit, you know, they came out, and they were a way more desperate team. You know, they played hard. They played really hard, and they played aggressively. And I just didn't think from the jump we matched their energy. Why, you know, is a great question. You know, we've had some good practices, we had a good shoot around, but sometimes it happens that way. I was happy that Kam was able to come off the bench and play well. I thought he did a lot of good things for us. I thought he made shots, and hopefully that'll help him with his rhythm moving forward. We just got to, there's not a whole lot we can take from this game in terms of what we did well, but we just got to do better, and we got to respond. But the one thing that we can't is we need to take, the one thing we can't take from this game is what Pitt was, and we've got to be a desperate team. From that standpoint, I didn't think we played hard enough to beat them. That wasn't the team that I've seen all year out there this evening.”

On the struggles defensively in the first half…

“I thought early turnovers. just, you know, it's so crazy, you just, play basketball, you come off a ball screen, you don't pick your dribble up. You know, you've got to come off the ball screen. You've got to see what the defense gives you, and you've got to play from there. I thought we were really passive on the offensive end, and I thought we were passive on the defensive end. And what you do is when you give a team life that's desperate, you know, as Pitt played, you know, they just fed off of it, and they did a really good job. Obviously, Cummings is like a starter, but he comes off the bench. I'm not really great with names, and I hate when people pronounce my last name wrong, so I'm not gonna pronounce it. But 25 (Nomas Indrusaitis) came off the bench, and he was just really good for them. He was good from jump. Everything he did, he was good. We just didn't have no respect for him, and he came out, and he had a big 16 points. I thought he was really good this evening along with Cumming just, Corhen, he did a really good job on the inside. They just set a tone, from start to finish. We were never able to kind of put a little strain on the game and put pressure on him.”

On what is ailing the team…

“Now I can't pinpoint it, but I do know it is a lot of season. And so there's optimism on my way. It doesn't feel like that right now, but you've got to keep pushing. The one thing that we'll do is we'll keep fighting. The first thing, at times, you have to do, and it's so cliché, so I don't really want to say it like that. But you just got to say, got to find guys that just want to play hard. Because tonight I just didn't think we played hard enough. Sitting or standing on the sideline and watching the game. They just played harder than us. They played really desperately, and we got to become that team. You know, we can't be a group that makes excuses. You know, we have to be coachable when we don't want to be coached. Tough times are times when you see what people are made of. I think we do have a lot left in the tank. And it's too early to look at it any other way. But we got work to do.”

On freshman Davi Remagen…

“I think he's one of the better defenders on our team. He's always been that way. We got to speed him up a little offensively. But defensively, think he's really good on the ball. He's strong. He's a physical guard. So I was happy to get him in there and get some minutes. It's just a matter of him getting a little more seasoned. But I do like him. Again, defensively, I think that's where he got to hang his hat on right now. And offensively, he'll keep going.”

On how the team can get off to faster starts….

“You got to look at some different things, but the group of five collectively hasn't played with a lot of energy. So you have to evaluate everything at this point. From the standpoint of what's gonna help us. The crazy thing about it is we've gotten off to bad starts, but we've been able to come back. I think that the last four minutes of the half have killed us just as much as the first four minutes of the game in certain respects. But tonight we weren't good in between. And so the game gets away from you and you can't keep playing from a deficit like that anyway. That's no way to play. We gotta start games better. It comes with the energy that we have. It comes with the pace you play offensively. You gotta play hard. That's the one thing we didn't do. We didn't match their energy again. Watching them standing there, they played harder than us. They did.”

On if there is an effort issue with the team and not finishing plays…

“I mean, at the end of the day. You know, I don't think it was a matter of of anything more than they just brought the game to us. In terms of finishing, yeah, we had some opportunities we didn't finish. But that wasn't why we lost the game. We lost the game in the first four minutes of the game. When we didn't match their energy, we went down 10-2. Then we just never played at a deficit the rest of the time. So at that time, you're just trying to find combinations to keep you in the game to get you back in it. We were never able to do that. We were never able to get that game of 10. So at the end of the day, it makes the margin of error smaller for the things that you're talking about. So now you get a rebound, you feel like you're putting a lot of stress on the game. You gotta make every shot and you gotta get every stop at that time. again, looking at their team and what they did. They got 39 points off the bench. Our starters didn't even score 39 points. So it makes it difficult to win.”

More Georgia Tech News:

•After Recent Commitments, Georgia Tech Now Has One Of The ACC's Highest-Rated Transfer Portal Classes

•Georgia Tech Gets Commitment From Former Oklahoma State EDGE Taje McCoy

•Georgia Tech Lands Commitment From Alabama Transfer Edge Noah Carter

•Report: Georgia Tech Is Bringing A Familiar Name Back to Be The Next Defensive Coordinator

•Former Auburn Offensive Lineman Favour Edwin Commits to Georgia Tech