Everything From Josh Pastner Following the Loss to North Carolina
Georgia Tech lost its conference opener by 16 against North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Saturday afternoon. The Yellow Jackets were outrebounded by the Tar Heels 43-22 and allowed North Carolina star player Armando Bacot to have 21 points and 13 rebounds. The game turned in North Carolina's favor during the last three minutes of the first half. Georgia Tech trailed 28-26 but allowed an 11-0 run to the Tar Heels to extend the lead to 39-26. Tech could not get the game to single digits after that.
Georgia Tech fell to 0-1 in conference play after losing to North Carolina
Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner spoke to the media after the game and here is everything he had to say following the loss to North Carolina.
Opening Statement:
"The timing we played them probably wasn't the best of times, they were coming off of four straight losses. They had a week to get healthy for (Armando) Bacot and you know for them to recenter and get reorganized with their team, I actually told my assistant during the course of the game right there one time Coach (Julian) Swartz that Virginia Tech got a gift by not having Bacot play in that game against them last Sunday because he just makes such a world of difference. But, with that being said to our young men, I am really proud of our guys, there is a lot of good we did, a lot of stuff that we have to clean up on and the good news is that we have a week off in a sense because of finals before we play again and we'll have a chance to clean up what we can clean up and really focus on some conditioning things. I really thought the game was won or lost in the last three or four minutes when North Carolina made that run and I felt we just kind of fell off a cliff.
There were a couple of things... we had some great looks that we could not make and in turn, that led to some transition opportunities, they got a couple of offensive rebounds and it the second half, we kinda hung around and were fighting back and had some great threes, some great looks and then Bacot got there with the offensive rebounds. Ja'von Franklin was only able to play six minutes. His groin was hurting, he had hurt his groin, so he was not, once we took him out, he tried to go once more and he was not available to go and obviously the rest of the game and Deivon Smith tweaked his ankle, rolled his ankle and that is why he was not able to go back in.
11 turnovers and the amount of possessions in that game is not a lot but it is too much for us and we need to keep it under nine or less. Again, we had some great looks, just unfortunately did not stick and you have to give North Carolina a lot of credit and they have a really good basketball team."
1. On only having one offensive rebound...
"You know, part of our best offensive rebounds is Ja'von and I will say though to try and help us in transition, we sent more guys back than we usually do, so that was part of the thing. I felt that... some of their best offense is transition offense so I felt for floor balance, we didn't... not having Ja'von there for those minutes really hurt us for offensive reboudning, big time.
2. On not being able to generate a lot of clear looks and a lot of possessions going to the end of the shot clock...
"Well a couple of things. One was Carolina started cutting the screens and or cutting, so they would play underneath and try to beat us to the spot on the side, on the other side to meet us there in a sense and part of that is based on out percentages of some of our guys. Obviously with Miles (Kelly), they are going over the top, but with a lot of other guys, they are just kind of cutting and meeting us there so that is something that we have to clean up through the remainder of this week of when teams are sagging or when they are playing off, we have to make sure that we can't let our cutting be slowed down, we have to continue to cut with great pace and great exiting on the cutting and that is just part of the deal.
When teams plays us, if we are not... one of my mysteries is that I felt like we were going to be to this point, we are a really good three point shooting team based on the ball in the fall in the scrimmages, we just have not shot the three ball well enough, to the level that I thought we would and we are due to do that. It was great to see Deebo (Coleman) make some threes today and so that was good, but we will have to make sure that we continue to do that, it will be part of our transition this week to clean that up. When teams sag off to play our underneath, not to surprise and we can still get to the second and third side and the speed of the cut has to be the same on that and that was part of the reason that we got to late clock at times."
3. On guys passion up a lot of first look shots...
"You know I prefer getting to the second and third side and playing that way, which I felt for the most part we did but we have to clean up when teams are playing off of us or sagging, we can't get in a rut or stuck, our continuation of our cuts and the speed of our cuts have to remain the same whether someone is guarding us tightly or not and that will be a chance for us to clean that up this week."
4. On some of the foul calls...
"I will have to go back and watch the film, obviously they went 24 times to the free throw line to our eight so you know, if we were fouling them, its a foul. But I have to go back and watch the film to see where we are with the fouls, if we are grabbing too much and we had a great crew today, those are three high level officials so I just have to watch the film. The way Carolina probably played allowed them to draw as many fouls because they were playing off and with us being a little more aggressive in some areas, there were some grabs or holds or things like that and i just need to go back and watch the film and see what it was."
5. On not having a lot of margin for error...
"You know, we don't have a lot of margin for error. We have to play really well and I thought... we had 11 turnovers, which is too many, but four of those 11 and a couple of those were from miscues on passes but I also think a lot of that has to do with you know, we have to be in better conditioning, we have been good in conditioning and we run a lot and this is not, there is not excuse for anything on this, we just... next week gives us a great opportunity because we have the whole week off and we will have a chance to ramp it up and so that will be good for us.
You know, looking back at a couple of days of practice, with finals starting and things like that, we are kinda mixing and matching on some things because of heavy finals things but next week will give us a better opportunity of that just on the fact alone that we don't play until next Saturday and we can really grind them Monday and Tuesday, you know, just with the conditioning part just to make sure we are caught up because once we get past this point, we play next Saturday and we play next Wednesday and then we have a break and have a 10 day break in the sense and then we have one more stretch where we can really condition them hard and then after that, we are really in game mode the rest of the way.
I felt because of the physicality that the banging on that that maybe we got a little winded at times and I am just, that is without me seeing the tape, that is live action. So, that is just part of it and it gives us a chance to give us some extra run and conditioning in. You know, I felt like against Georgia and the games previously, I felt we were really good conditioned and the way we were able to maintain things and then maybe today, I felt like maybe my observation was a little off so it gives us a chance to get that going next week and based on practice schedules and finals, maybe have not had as much time to grind them in the conditioning area."
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