What Josh Pastner Said After Georgia Tech's 78-74 Loss To Notre Dame
Opening statement:
“First off, I want to give a lot of credit to Notre Dame. They hit some tough shots. I’ve said this before: I think Coach Brey is one of the best coaches in all of college basketball. The amount of wins he’s had, he’s one of the very best coaches in the entire game. They’re a good team, Notre Dame. The reality is, they’ve lost some games in conference that they probably should have won. They’ve had late leads against Louisville, late leads against Boston College, NC State. So, I knew this was a good team. You couldn’t tell based on their conference record, I knew they were better than that. They hit some tough shots.”
“I thought both teams played well offensively in the second half and it just came down to whoever was going to hit tougher shots towards the end and they hit some tough shots. The one time we went zone they hit a three on us. But look, we shot 68 percent from the field in the second half and they shot 53 [percent] in the second half. The difference was the offensive rebounding. They had five more offensive boards and five less turnovers. That created seven more shots for them and that’s the game right there. Nothing else matters, that’s the basketball game.”
On Georgia Tech’s guard play:
“We can’t have Bubba [Parham] and Jose [Alvarado] combine for six turnovers. Now Jose had nine assists, but he and Bubba Parham, you can’t have six turnovers at this level [as guards] and it’s all about guard play. And if those guys have six turnovers between those two, that makes it really hard. Bubba had those two turnovers [in] the first half, he jumped in the air, the other one he had the post entry pass. Jose had one or two in the first half but he had a crucial one there in the second half, but that happens. [Jose] had a great look at a three, it was at the top of the key, that he usually makes. I thought Michael Devoe played well offensively, but the reason he played well offensively was because he played well defensively the last 30 minutes of the game. He did a good job defensively, he also had nine rebounds, and that translated into him being better offensively.
On Georgia Tech’s physicality in the game tonight:
“We had 48 points in the paint, so we had +16 in the paint. What I didn’t like is we didn’t impose our will on the glass. Jordan Usher [had] no offensive rebounds, Moses Wright [had] one and James [Banks] had two. Out of those three guys, the minutes they played, to have a total of three offensive rebounds, and between those three they only got a total of 11 defensive rebounds. It’s just not enough. Those guys, they’ve got to be all about motor, and motor is all about what you do on the offensive and defensive glass.”
On how he thought they executed on defense:
“You’re playing good teams. We had some chances where we blew the opportunities to get that kill, and the kill is three stops in a row. And I thought [Prentiss Hubb] and [T.J] Gibbs hit some tough shots. Part of playing in the ACC, you’re going to have guys who can make plays and make shots. Our guys’ effort was there, they guarded, it’s just a couple times those guys hit some tough shots and that’s life in the ACC.”
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