Jan. 10, 2009

Box Score | Photo Gallery

Coach Thompson

On Henry Sims and Jason Clark's invaluable play today...
I thought that both Henry and Jason were terrific today. The group, where we had the freshmen and sophomores out there...during the phase of the game where we got back in it and pulled away and put ourselves in a position to win. It comes with time; slowly but surely both Jason and Henry and Gregory are understanding and getting comfortable and able to come in and help us. We got a big boost today with those two in there and they're getting more comfortable and everyone else is getting more comfortable and confident in them when they're in the game.

On the first half of the game...
"This is the big east. We didn't come out as focused as we should have. That's a veteran team, they play like a veteran team. They don't make mistakes. They put a group out on the floor that doesn't get rattled. They know what they're looking for, having all those upperclassmen makes a big difference and they came out like an upper-class team. Once we settled into the game we were fine. Also, a key thing, the first ten minutes or so we didn't get Greg the ball enough, once we started getting him the ball, we started getting really easy shots.

On Greg Monroes play...
He does a terrific job. I've said this from the beginning, of understanding of when the opportunities are there for him to score and when the opportunities are there for his teammates. It's because of his presence when he has the ball, you saw today...it felt like he had 15 assists, I look and see 8. Putting the ball in his hands makes it a lot easier on everyone else and I think our guys realize that.

On strategy discussed at halftime...
I thought we were getting to the rim the first half but we... missed a lot of lay ups.. It wasn't necessarily a change in strategy, I talked about and focused on getting the ball to Greg in different positions and cutting off that. Everyone has a pretty good feel of how to cut and when to cut and he'll pass the ball. They started to spread out on us and Chris a couple of times, DaJaun a couple of times were able to penetrate as they were closing out on us."

Georgetown Player Quotes

Jason Clark:

On the game slowing down ...
"Yeah, it started to slow down. I'm starting to get more comfortable on the court and know what I can and can't do."

Greg Monroe:

On two early fouls...
"Just trying to play hard and try to get the ball. Its just two fouls, I can't control that."

On Role he plays and why the team was so successful today...
"I think it's just our defense. It seemed like in our defense they kind of stood still. The more movement we had, the more openness we had."

Chris Wright:

On the win over Providence...
"I think it was a big improvement. Group process today, we all kind of grew up and Coach let us, he believed in us, and we all stayed together on the court. The contributions from Henry and Jason were very important. I think its going to help us big time down the road. Giving them confidence that when they get in a game they're not going to be shy or timid."

On the offensive effort ...
"I think in the Notre Dame game we settled for too many contested shots early in the game. We made a conscious effort of going to the basket, getting the ball inside to Greg or whoever was posting up. The shots were coming, so eventually we were able to play from the inside out."

Austin Freeman

On Greg Monroe's passing ability ...
Greg's a real good passer. We all think he's a good passer. We try to go inside to him and read off him. Like today, when we went inside to him the defense's attention was on him and that's how we were able to get all of the open cuts.

On DaJuan Summers and Greg Monroe getting into foul trouble...
We all know that DaJuan and Greg are key parts to the team. But if we lose them we can't get all down about it, we have to stick together and keep playing hard.

Providence Head Coach Keno Davis

Opening Statement...
As I look at the stat sheet and reflect on the game I take a lot of positives for Providence College. Georgetown took it to us both on the rebounding side of things and their offense shooting at a very high-percentage against us. Coming on the road is never easy in the BIG EAST or in any other conference. But, I think as I look back on the game and say, 'There's a lot of negatives on the stat sheet' and for us to have that game come down to the last minute, minute and a half you've got to look at that as a positive. When you get back home or you go on the road maybe you take this with you as a learning experience to see if you can get the next victory. Life in the BIG EAST you play a lot of teams with numbers in front of them and we have our share coming up.

On his team's improvement throughout the season...
We've improved a lot. Even from our first game opening with a home loss to Northeastern we went out to the 76 Classic and we were a better team then than we were to start the season...From that point on we're playing our best basketball we did at Cincinnati, we had a short turnaround having played on Wednesday and then coming back and playing on Saturday afternoon. I think that showed in our legs in the second half. You have to hand it to Georgetown. They came in with a very good game plan, the extra day helped them be able to execute against our defense, both our full court pressure and our half court pressure.

On the six-minute scoreless stretch in the second half...
I thought it was an interesting stretch. Sometimes when teams go on the road and there is physical play there's kind of a gut check time and we didn't react very well to those minutes and we got frustrated because they made some good shots during that stretch. You kind of push or pressure yourself into making something happen instead of letting the offense come to you. I think in those situations you're going to make runs. Other teams are going to make runs we knew we were going to make a run and knock down shots, but (Georgetown's) couple shots turned in to four or five and they built a comfortable lead from that point and it was enough for them to hold on.

On Providence's defense...
We played all zone in this game. I would like to play more man than zone, I like both of our defenses, but in a short turnaround I didn't feel that with Georgetown's intricate offense that we had enough time to defend it. We had to go with our basic and try to keep our legs from our game on Wednesday, even though it was a matchup zone and their were a lot of man principles out of it. They exploited it. They found some good matchups and got some points out of it.