Jan. 23, 2010

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery

Georgetown 88, Rutgers 63
Verizon Center
January 23, 2010

Georgetown University Head Coach John Thompson III

Opening Statement...
I thought that we were focused for the most part, until the very end. They came out with a cohesiveness and an energy that was good for us. That's something we stressed and something we want to maintain.

On Jason Clark's defensive efforts on Mike Rosario...
As in the last 18 games Jason Clark has been playing very good defense. When Jason hasn't been on someone, Chris has been on someone and when one of those two haven't been on them the rest of the group has done a very good job of helping and showing it's a team effort. I think overall our guys are working. Jason has had a lot of burdens of guarding some very good offensive players and that's not going to change and his teammates have done a very good job of helping him.

On the bench...
I am comfortable with them. It's not like when they go in there I'm holding my breath. I said this after the last two or three with the reps that Jerrelle is getting he's showing that he is comfortable. Hollis has played the whole year and he gave us some good minutes today.

On Georgetown's play in the second half...
In the second half we were getting a little careless at times. Our timing of the rotations in our offense weren't what they were supposed to be, but we'll work on it, we'll watch it and we'll fix it, so I think we'll be ok.

On Greg Monroe's performance...
I thought he did a very good job of pursuing the ball and pursuing rebounds. I think that is what got him going. The first couple of times we wanted to go in to him and the team did an excellent job of executing and making sure he got the ball deep. The delivery of the passes were where they should be. But a double-double from him is not something we're going to get excited about, we've come to expect it from him.

Sophomore Center Greg Monroe

On his performance...
It was basically taking high percentage shots. I was getting the ball in position where I was getting easy shots, it wasn't anything I was doing in particular, it was just getting the shots within the offense.

Junior Guard Chris Wright

On the Hoyas fast start..
We didn't do anything different. We've been coming out slow and we wanted to emphasize that we wanted to get out and jump on these guys from the start, especially with Greg and certain other things on defense.

On the team's high shooting percentage against Rutgers...
We all have capable players that can shoot, it's just a matter of getting time and space. As long as we stay unselfish and continue to penetrate gaps and get open shots I think we'll be fine. We have a lot of players on this team that can shoot the basketball and it's just a matter of time before they start making them, so we just have to be unselfish and find them.

Coach Fred Hill Quotes

On the effort of his team...
Of course we are trying to figure something out. I think our guys had a great practice yesterday. I think our guys battle, they have effort. (We were down) 10 (points) with two minutes to go in the first half and we have three bad possessions offensively and all of a sudden, there's a 6-0 run and it becomes a 16 point game. We come out (the start of the second half), make the first two shots, battle back like we have always done but we are missing layups...we got open shots and we couldn't knock them down.

I told the guys, I can't fault your effort, I can't fault you missing shots, we got to get into the gym and get better at that. We still have to rebound better and when we get great open looks and do things and execute, we got to take advantage of it against a great team. Maybe a team not quite so talented, you can get away with some of those things and get away with it but against a really good team you can't do those things. You can't execute layups and miss them; it just doesn't work that way. I can't fault the guys for anything and of course they are down but they are working hard and we have to figure it out, it's tough.

It's tough when you have to regroup; we are not going to change the way we play. So sometimes I don't look at the numbers... I am looking at what we are doing because there is a certain way this year we are going to play. Obviously, we are a little bit different team right now but we are not going to go backwards, we are going to keep moving forward. When you keep running up and down the floor and play quick and you miss a few easy ones there are going to be more possessions and give the other team more opportunities to score. The game can kind of stretch out and we are trying to win and trying to get better.