Everything From Head Coach Damon Stoudamire After Road Loss To Miami

Head coach Damon Stoudamire talked to the media after a close loss on the road to Miami on Saturday afternoon. Here is everything he had to say after the loss.

Opening Statement….

“Miami is a good team. I don't say this, you know, cuz we played both teams at home, them and Duke, you know, but they do a good job of making shots. You know, they made a lot of shots down the stretch. You know, I don't watch a study diet of the team, so I'm not really for sure the percentages says that, but you know, um you know, they just make they make shots, you know, and they made they more importantly making shots, I think they make shots when they count. Some people can make shots and don't mean nothing in the game, you know, but you got people that make shots when the game is on. When the game is on, they executed down the stretch, and we didn't. Um, you know, but I want to give my guys credit cuz they fought back. We started off slow, which is disappointing, especially coming off Syracuse the other night. Thought we could have played a lot better in that game, but we can't put ourselves in 10-point holes when you lose by 10. Then there's pockets in the game where we just tend not to execute. We got to eliminate that if we're going to if we're going to try to be a good team. you know, to me, the way I see it is, you know, we've lost a couple games that, you know, we've been in and had an opportunity to win. We got to be better in those, you know, so it's a lot of season to go. You know, right now it's about getting better. It's about keeping guys engaged, and that's the biggest thing that I want to do moving forward this week.”

On how not to dig holes early in games and turnovers…

“I preach it every day. I wish guys would take on it. You got to pay attention to detail. You've got to be process-driven, excuse me. You know, each and every day. Um, you've got to understand the toxic trait to eliminate in your life. You know, that's what you've got to do. And, you know, whether it's turnovers, you know, whether it's missing the defensive assignment, all that stuff, all of it bleeds in because, you know, you see the turnovers, but I see we missed a couple tags. The first play of the game against Syracuse, we talked about eliminating a roller, and first points of the game they got was a dunk. So, for me, it's so much bigger than even the turnovers. Yes, we got to get them down, but the attention to detail has to be better. You've got to pay attention to when we're going over the scouting report each and every day. You've got to get lost in it, you know, and to me that that's what hurts, you know, and you know, you can't get down to a team like this uh and and spot them spot him a 10-point lead at the beginning.

On what makes Tre Donaldson tough to stop…..

“He gets lost in the game, and when I say lost in the game, he's doing so many other things. Then, when it comes down the stretch you know he makes and takes all the big shots, and you know he's actually done that. When I was preparing for the game, you know, I actually seen that and I actually told that to my team like it doesn't really matter how many points he scores. His impacted to me is the last four minutes of the game. You know, watch Tre play, you know, when he's at Auburn, Michigan, you know, this the best I've ever seen him play, you know, but this is probably the first time in his life he's ever had a coach that believed in him from start to finish and kind of looked the other way and let him play through his mistakes and everything. So, it's a lot to be said for a guy when you can play well when you're given, you know, that type of that type of string to be successful. He did a really good job um for them, especially down the stretch.”

On Mouhamed Sylla and Peyton Marshall….

“Well, with Mo that that's that's on me. I shouldn't have put him in. That was on me. He you know, he hasn't played in a week. It's just the engagement of it. You know, he's been he's been in and out of appointments and different things and, you know, just now that's on me. I shouldn't have played him. I should have gave him a couple days and probably shot for Pittsburgh you know, just to give him some time, you know, and and and he can get up and down and find the rhythm of what we're doing. You know, to ask him to come in the game, a team like that, that's just difficult. So, I just went the other direction, you know, and it's nothing against the bigs. I just I like the way our smalls are playing. I think it put a lot of stress on the game. I think we tough smalls and um you know, we held our own. I mean, the one thing we can take away from this and then Miami ninth in the country in rebounding, we out reboundedthem. You know what I mean? We out-rebound them. We tied them in offensive rebounds. So, you know, I was happy with with the effort of smalls. You know, it's just again the biggest thing for me is starts in those pockets in the games where we got to become better. We got to be much more detailed oriented and understand the assignment of what we're trying to do.”

On Miami head coach Jai Lucas….

“Yeah, I know Jai dang near his whole life. I lived in Houston for 15 years. Um, seeing him evolve, he's been around basketball his whole life. you know, most people don't know whether it's been his father, his brother, NBA players, former coaches, like you know, he even when he went to Florida out of high school, excuse me, most of us thought he was just going to be a coach anyway, you know what I mean? So, his trajectory doesn't surprise me at all. Um, he's been involved in, you now, a whole lot of a whole lot of uh of basketball throughout his whole life. Again, he's seen, you know, he's seen some of him and LJ, you know, LJ, I mean LJ Rose, like them guys like them dudes seen him every day for like five straight years. I wanted to kick his a**, but you know, um he's like family. He's a little brother and if he hasn't had his press conference next time you talk, tell him he fouls all the time, and he'll know what you're talking about. Yeah, tell him he fouls a lot.”

On how to get sparks earlier in games….

“For lack of a better term, we've got to get a go-to guy. Let's call it what it is. It is what it is, you know, but we have to finish games. We're right there to be in the game. We got to finish the game. When we're losing games, we're not finishing. You need it. We talk a lot about certain things, but at the end of the day man you need a dude. Got to have a dude, you know what I mean, and somebody has to step up you know in those moments, and you know I think we got really good players but we got to have somebody start finishing, you know, that's what it comes to man. As bad as I feel at this moment, we've lost three ACC games, and it was a five-point game with under four. Got to finish. Got to finish something. You just have to finish. When you don't have that go-to guy like that, where it could be a different guy every day or every game, excuse me. You've got to execute. You've got to pay attention to detail. You can't suck on the ball when you shouldn't. You've got to just pass the ball and make the play right in front of you. But, you know, we'll figure it out. It's not that you can't win that way, but you know, there just has to be there has to be a little more resistance to the things you can't do on the floor in those moments.”

On the defensive possession Georgia Tech didn’t get the rebound…

“Got to get that rebound, man. No ifs, ands, and no buts. You've got to get the rebound. Like, we talk about that stuff every day. That's the margins. You've got to win the margins. He he running the other way on defense, but the ball's right there. We need, I mean our offense, we need to get the ball. Like that's deflating those things right there. You know, you can't do that when you're trying to win the game and especially when you're trying to beat a team like this. You've got to get a rebound. You just have to. You can't leave that on the table. You just can't. Not at that time.”

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