Feb. 13, 2011
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Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III
On Austin Freeman's status...
Austin sprained his ankle. Obviously he was able to go in the second half, is he 100 percent? No. We'll figure it out as soon as we get back to school. But he was able to play, though he was limping a little bit.
On the team's performance...
We didn't play well. I don't think we were flat, I don't want to use that word, we just didn't play well. You have to give them credit for that. They do a very good job of taking you out of your rhythm and running, jumping trapping and playing hard.
On Hollis Thompson's performance in the second half...
The man to my left here (Hollis Thompson) did an outstanding job of starting to make the hustle plays. They were getting every loose ball, they were making the hustle plays in the first half, but in the second half I feel we did.
Georgetown's defensive effort over the last eight games...
I think our defense has been better. I think it's as simple as the guys understand now that it is personal. You've heard me say this in previous games, we sit here and talk about schemes and systems and man or zone, but at the end of the day you've got to guard somebody. The guy in front of you, you have to guard, you have to stop him and during that your teammates will have your support.
On the momentum shift in the second half that put Georgetown ahead...
I may watch the tape and change my mind, but I don't think our defense was poor in the first half. Our rebounding was poor. So we were getting a lot of the same stops as in the first half, but we were getting ball this time instead of them getting second shots.
On if Georgetown needed a game where they had to claw back to keep them focused ...
I don't think that's necessary. I think we have a group, especially in light of how we started conference play, we don't need to be reminded that you have to play well in the BIG EAST. In every game you have to scrap and you have to fight.
On Marquette's substitution pattern...
We just had to make sure we knew who was on the court and who was guarding who.
On winning eight in a row in the BIG EAST...
We're defending better and also during that stretch we had a couple of guys that we needed to score that had a bad stretch. We can go OK if one of Chris, Austin or Jason is having a bad day, if two of them are having a bad day depending on who the opposition, ok, but we go through a stretch where three of them and they were getting good looks the ball just wasn't going in. Those guys have to score for us, they had a bad ten day stretch, but that stretch is over and they've back to being themselves.
Player Quotes
Senior Guard Austin Freeman:
"I got on the floor and somebody landed on my ankle. It rolled. I was just trying to get up and see if I can walk on it. I was in pain, but I played through it. It didn't hurt as much while I was playing. I'm good. I told the trainer that I was going to play anyways so I just told her to tape me up and I just went back out there."
Sophomore Forward Hollis Thompson:
"In the first half, they out-rebounded us and coming out of the locker room at the half time, we emphasized boxing out and getting rebounds. I think my teammates did a great job boxing out which allowed me to come in and get the boards. As a team we really focus on getting down there and all five of us getting the boards."
Senior Guard Chris Wright:
"They made a good play. I threw the ball. It was a bad judgment. I always beat myself up at the end of games because I made a couple of bad plays down the stretch; time management wasn't good. It was tough. It's just how games go sometimes. As long as we stayed with our stuff and kept playing, and our energy was good on both ends of the court, we weren't always executing but in terms of the hustle, covering each other's back, I think we were there. Rough shooting or whatever, it happens. We grinded it out today and we stuck with it. Everybody stayed together and played on."
"One play that really sticks out to me was when Henry got an and-one. I think he made the free throw and put us up by five. That was a big turning point and we got some stops and got some transition; Austin got an easy layup. After that, we decided to get stops and finish the game up. We have had some serious three-on-three battles and it is really intense. We just kind of take it personal. You want to guard your man, you don't want to get scored on, and you want to keep your man off the board, so regardless of whether we are in man or zone, we play with man principles, like guard the man in front of you. We just want to get after it and do our best to keep the person out of the lane and force some tough shots."
"Yeah it's tough. It's just how the BIG EAST is. We won eight games and we are still in third place, so it just goes to show that as the season goes on, it doesn't matter who you play, every team is very good. Every game night in and night out is tough; every team has very good players and very good coaches." "I guess it was just to throw us off balance and try to catch us off-rhythm, but a lot of the players are very good and they are aggressive players, so as long as you know what their tendencies were and stay attentive to that, we were fine."
"Johnson-Odom is a tough player. He is physical and he is very strong and he's fast, so we just wanted to force him into some tough shots where we had some help and contest him. Really play as tough as you can. Some players like him and other guys, you got to try to contain him. That's what we wanted to do and it worked to our benefit for a while. "
