Feb. 26, 2011

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Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III

On the end of the game...

"I don't remember. We got some good looks that didn't go in. I think Julian was extremely effective tonight on the defensive end, but on the offensive end the ball didn't go in the basket. We fought, we scrapped, but he ball just took some bad bounces."

On taking 25 three-pointers...

"When you play against that zone, you're going to get them. That's what they give you. We tried to figure out after the success we had up there what they were going to take away and they gave us shots. I'm sitting here now, and I have to go back and look, feeling that we got good shots. We still got it into the overload and kicked it out to the guys that were open. I don't think there were a lot of contested threes. The ball just didn't go in."

On the atmosphere...

"It was great. Most of the cheering was for us."

On Syracuse G Scoop Jardine ...

"He made some big shots. We make a run and he hit one or maybe two threes. Those were big, big shots for them. He managed the game for them and controlled the game for them. We made a run and he answered with a couple of key baskets."

On play in the paint....

"We didn't get enough. I think we had some situations where we had some looks, we missed some easy bunnies that, when you're playing against them, once you get it in there you can't miss those. We got what we wanted, the ball didn't go in. You have to give them credit today."

On Syracuse F Rick Jackson....

"The game against us (in Syracuse) may be the only game all year when he was in foul trouble. He usually plays 38 minutes per game or something like that. With him in there it does make a difference, I think to our approach to how we wanted to attack their defense. We got the ball where we wanted it most of the time, but you have to finish the play and put the ball in the basket."

On his reason for starting Hollis Thompson in place of Chris Wright....

"Hollis can shoot. Hollis can put the ball in the basket and we knew we were going to get open shots."

On what the other players have to do to be successful while Chris Wright is injured...

"I said this yesterday, I think everyone has to do what they've been doing, but for longer periods of time."

On closing out the BIG EAST schedule next Saturday at Cincinnati...

"(Chris Wright) gets hurt three days ago (and) you get two days to get ready for this game and now you have a week to get ready for the next game. It's a loss, there is no doubt about that. But you get down; you come out the first couple minutes of the second half and nothing good is happening. I'm not trying to look for something good, but we responded. It's not like we packed it in and took a 'woe is me attitude.' We fought, we scrapped and we got back in it. We came out on the losing end, but we're going to figure this out. We're in a position where we thought we'd be five days ago. What it is, is what it is. That group in there, I've got confidence that we're going to figure it out."

Georgetown Player Quotes

Junior Jason Clark

On his late in the game three-pointer
Jackson got a piece of it. Jackson drove and made a good read before and tipped it

On their second half lead
I think we had control of the game at that point. We were making good stops and made a great play on that play (Lubick's tip-in). We thought we had control but we knew it wasn't over yet.

On the missed shots down the stretch
I think we got good shots, they just didn't make it.

On playing without Chris Wright
It was different but, like Coach said, everyone needed to step up and do more of what they were doing and do it better. It was different with him not on the court but people still stepped up.

Senior Chris Wright

On being on the bench after senior awards
It was tough. I don't want to miss games but I was just there trying to support my team. It's part of sports; you get hurt and roll with it.

On encouraging his team
I was telling them just what I see on the court. I see things on the defensive end and offensive end where we can take advantage of things.

Senior Austin Freeman

On going into the next game needing a win
The approach is how we approach every game. We are going in there trying to win. That's what we all think about because we know we have to win now. That's what we'll take into practice.

On the offense
At points, we were holding the ball a bit too long looking for something. We were just looking for each other and holding the ball too long.

On playing without Chris Wright
It was weird at first; I've played with him for four years now. It was a little bit weird but we still had to play.

Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim quotes

Opening Statement...
"There weren't many things called it was just both teams going to the basket hard and trying to make plays and it was hard to do. I thought our defense was good, rebounding we didn't do a good job. The second half, it was the boards that hurt us and offensively we never could get any rhythm going. Scoop (Jardine) made two plays that were tough plays almost "no no no... yes!" plays but that was the difference in the game. Kris Joseph made a great offensive rebound, and made a good block on the other end and obviously was key and Brandon made his free throws but we've been in a lot of these games this year and we make plays, we've made plays down the stretch."

On Chris Wright's Injury...
"Obviously, Chris Wright not playing is huge; I hope he's all right. I hope he can come back because Georgetown is obviously one of the best teams in our league with him playing and that's a huge loss. It's one of those things. I thought the difference in this game and the game at our place is at the end of the game we made some plays here and in Syracuse we just couldn't make a play. Both teams gave an unbelievable effort and I was happy the way our guys came in and played off the bench. The effort everybody made. "

On Syracuse's Defensive Line Up...
"We have played the small line up a lot but I told the players in there we've got to play the bigger line up some of the time and get size in there. I thought that was key. Fab (Melo) did a good job when he was in there and you know we just have to learn to not throw him the ball when he's running or moving but both big guys are key for us as we go forward at the end of the year we are going to be some place, we've got to have the bigger line up out there at least some of the time. This was a tough situation to put him in but that's what we are going to be in down the road and we need to be in that situation. The small lineup is good for us but there are going to be games where we have to have the big line up."

On Syracuse's Defensive Effort...
"I thought the biggest difference tonight was we found there shooters. At Syracuse, we left three of them...three or four of them just open. They got a couple but they didn't get a lot of wide open looks until Clark finally hit those 2 tough ones and they were not easy and that got them rolling. But our offense was really good in the first half, second half we struggled."

On Syracuse Defensive Strategy against Julian Vaughn...
"We were more active that's all. We were just more active and when we got inside we defended him better. In Syracuse Vaughn hurt us. We defended him better and really that was a big key, we defended the inside better and so our guards could stay a little more on the perimeter. Our forwards could stay. "