Everything From Head Coach Damon Stoudamire After Loss To No. 16 North Carolina

Georgia Tech suffered its third consecutive loss on Saturday when they fell to North Carolina at home. Here is everything from head coach Damon Stoudamire afte the game.

Opening Statement

“I thought we played hard. We didn't execute the way I wanted us to execute, without going into everything. If you guys miss something, or if I miss something and you guys don't ask it, then I'll go into it again. For me, oh when I look at games, I look at the margins. I think most games are played in the margins. Basketball in this game, you know, it came down to a couple of things. Obviously, they got, you know, a couple of good players, but we had 12 turnovers, and they scored 18 points off our turnovers, and they got 20 second-chance points. That's winning in the margins. That's 38 points right there. And then you talk about bench play again.I don't want to pronounce his name wrong because I hate when people mispronounce mine, but 44 European kid, he really played well. He shot the ball well. We didn't do a good job guarding him. You, everybody else, I call that the known. the known. Like their stats say, this is what they do every night. You know, and they got a couple of points above what they do. But again, coming off the bench, you know, the kid has a plus 16, that's the second-best plus-minus on the team for the day. And you lose by 16 points, and then you give up those 38 points. Again, I talk about being in the margins. From that standpoint, that's where the game was lost for us. But then there were a couple of pockets in the game I wish we had had back. I thought there was a couple of plays at the end of the first half that hurt us. We were in striking distance, but the game got away from us a little bit. And then the second half, obviously, we just never were able, we was never able to put stress on the game. You know, we gotta figure some things out. That's where we at. And like I told the players, it's crazy because I think sometimes kids start to panic. I think that they start to, or they tend to want start deviating and different things. It’s nothing against them, I just think it's human nature. Right? I do. You know, as I told them, you get under the microscope, and I've been in the microscope so long, started 15 years old, you know, you got to learn to take the good and the bad. And like I told those guys, you have to, right now, you got to figure out, you know, who's with you and who isn't, if we're going to get this thing back going the right way. know, first nine games of conference, two and seven, obviously, that's not what we want to be. You know, but we got another nine games of right to ship. And, you know, it's not going to be but we gotta put in the work, and that's where I told them that, regardless of whatever happens, you fight for yourself. Fight for yourself. I thought Baye really was good tonight. They really played well. He did a lot of good things out there. He played big minutes. I thought he got better as the game went on as well.”

On the changes that need to be made in the box score…

“The little things of oh what you need to do, oh, it just seems like I'm saying the same thing.You know, each game, but we just, got to figure it out. But you know, you can't have live ball turnovers and basketball. That's a killer. Again, I say it all the time. It's like a pick six in football. You know what I mean? It's draining, so to speak. It's draining. You gotta be able to rebound the ball, and we gave 20 seconds, gave up 20-second chance points. You know, yes, we need to clean that up, but it has to be a concerted effort. And I think that each guy on our team has to mean something to them. That's I try to tell these guys and instil in these guys. Because my thing is that where I was and who I was as a basketball player, wouldn't have made it if I didn't do the things that I'm talking about. It was just a part of what I had to do to be successful.”

On if there is any pressure he is feeling right now as the head coach….

“I'm locked in. I'm always locked in and I feel like we can turn it around. I would say this, the one thing about me and I've always been this way, know, nobody can tell me what I'm not doing because I'm hardest on myself. I know where we're at, you know, and I understand that. But the one thing you will never hear from me, period, it's on me to right the ship. I don't throw kids under the bus. I'm never gonna point no fingers. We just gotta get better. You know what mean? And that's how I am. And I'm all right with that. I'm all right with who I am. And nothing on the outside is ever going to define me or nobody can put more pressure on me than I put on myself to have success.”

On how close the program is to where he wants it to be…

“It's not close. I mean, I think that there are some traits that we have. I would say the middle of year three, you know, one thing that you have to do in college basketball no is you have to be able to recreate, you know, what happened the year before. And sometimes you've got to do it with different people on the run. When you look at our seasons, we were winning games early, they were tight games. But the bottom line is we were winning games, and I knew we had to get better. We had some games and conference play early on that we played well enough to win, but we didn't get to win. ah I think that right now. You're still trying to create, and that's the challenge. The challenge is, last year it took, actually, it took injuries, and it took suspensions for the team to come together, but we did, we came together. It's a little different this year, but it's still the same way. I would be lying to you if I didn't want better for where we're at in the middle of my third year. know what I mean? That's just what it is. I take responsibility for the good and the bad. And for me, as I move forward, it's all about winning and getting guys better. But I tell you what I won't ever stand for is I won't ever settle for less if I don't feel like a guy is not doing what I deem to help us be successful as a program. I won't play them or things like that. There's never gonna be any compromising on my end for who I am. I won't ever waver on that.”

On three point shooting and Kam Craft….

“The last couple of games, Kam has really been shooting the ball and playing well. I would say I would say this, uh you know, that's what we anticipated. So the problem with it is that most people know that he could shoot. So it's not that he can't shoot, he just hadn't shot it well from us. And so what Cam has to do is he has to continue to get lost in the game. And we gotta do a better job of reading. When I say better job of reading, if we're in transition and he's trailing, we gotta know that.Like if the defense is flowing in and he's a trail guy, we gotta flow for that. If he's away and there's an opportunity for us to go set a screen on him, we gotta be able to do that. So I'm happy for him. He's really worked his tail off, and he's allowed me to coach him. That's the one thing I say about Cam. He's not difficult. When I took him out the lineup, he said that he was all right with it cuz he wasn't playing well. I don't know how many players at that moment would have said that. But he's been really good for us and he continues to work, and I'm happy to see him have success.”

On correcting the turnovers and driving too deep into the paint.…

“It's the old adage, you know, when you go in there, you can't get too deep. You know, you've got to have an imaginary stop sign with what you're trying to do. And there were a couple of possessions where they just stick out at me where we were trying to throw lives over over over the big fella. He's seven feet. So whether he jumps or not, if he just puts his hands up, he's 79.

So we just have to be better in our decision-making and not put ourselves in that position. And for me, that's the disappointing thing. These are not only things that we go and talk about, but these are things that we actually go over each and every day. And so we gotta figure those things out. It's part of it. You gotta be confident as a player. You gotta be confident in your ability. You can't have a waiver with that, know, especially when you're playing against a team like Carolina.”

On what North Carolina did from an execution standpoint…

“One thing we have to do a better job of is we gotta make multiple plays. Like, for whatever reason, at times, we feel like one or two things are good on a possession. Now you might have to close out on a guy, run him off the line, then you gotta come back, get into play. You might have to rear-view contest, then you might have to box out. You know, too many times there are situations where we have an opportunity to make a play, and we don't make it. And I call that changing your profile. You know, that's what my coach used to tell me on every level I played on. You he used to tell me, " You want to get the credit you deserve, and you want the recognition, change your profile. And what changing your profile means is doing something that people, that stand out to people who are watching the game. And what you're talking about really is the margins again. We have to do a better job collectively of that. know, and then at times, you know, another thing, you know, that, that, that I will say, um, you know, aside from, aside from, you know, and I didn't see the play, what happened to Lamar, and I know his mouth was bloody. So that's why I'm saying, aside from that, and man, you've got to punch first. I feel like it's like getting into a fight, right? Like if dudes square up on you, like I'm not gonna let them hit me first. Like I'm not doing that. You can't do that. Like when you're playing in this game, hey man, you gotta hit first. You gotta hit basketball. Basketball is a contact sport, and you gotta hit first. I think a lot of things that you're talking about again alleviate for me if we hit first. We gotta always have that hit first mentality.”

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