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Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III

On rebounding after the Kansas loss ...

Going into today I was very, very nervous and mostly it had to do with Radford. They are a very good team, they're a veteran team and coach Mike Jones does a terrific job. They're one of those teams that they get what they want, offensively, they stay with their stuff and they get the shot to who they want when they want it and they have good offensive players. Defensively, they're stingy, that's the only word I can think of to describe them and you can sit her and preach these guys, but we played a very good team. I shouldn't stay that we stumbled, as you can see the regular crew from The Hoya isn't here because we're all dealing with finals, so I was very nervous but I like the way we came out, particularly in the second half and that was started by Aaron Bowen. His activity was a bonus, not just the steal that he got but the help and the support that he gave his teammates was infectious.

On working against full court pressure ...

I thought it was okay, we have to get better at it. Overall I don't know how many turnovers we had against them, because that's something that they do, they create turnovers, you're going to get pressed and you're going to get pressure the entire time. I think that was one of the reasons that the first half was sloppy, I think we caved in too much instead of staying with our sets to get to easy shots in the second half. I think the guys did a good job of sharing the game and that was started with Jabril Trawick. By sharing the game with each other that lead to easier shots in the second half.

On the defensive effort ...

I think that's all a process of maturation to learn and to understand that if we have a bad offensive possession that can't turn into a bad defensive possession and if we have a bad defensive possession that can't turn into a bad offensive possession. At the end of the first half I think we were able to lock in and get shots. They're (Radford) one of the type of teams that has multiple people who can make threes and multiple people that can penetrate, I thought our guys were honed in starting in the first half and that definitely came over into the second half.

On the play of Aaron Bowen ...

Aaron did what Aaron does which was to come in and give us that energy boost.

On the use of the bench ...

I think it just happened because it felt right.

On increasing Aaron Bowen's minutes against Radford ...

I just finished telling the guys this now, the way our team is this year we can play a lot of different ways and I thought that he would be effective today so I got him in early. I didn't think he would be effective the other day against Kansas so he didn't play. It could be Aaron today, it can be Jabril tomorrow, we have different people depending on the minutes and how we want to play, everyone has to be ready to step up when you're name is called and his name was called. It started with his effort on defense and not those crazy 360 degree dunks.

On the play of Jabril Trawick ...

Going off of what Jabril said, he was open today. We don't him just chucking up shots if he's not open they're bad shots. The shots he took today he was open and he was set, he took the kind of shots that he should take. If people want to play him hard and force shots we don't want him to force it and he didn't force anything today.

On the play of D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera

I think today he was pressing a little bit, which we'll talk about, we have enough offensive weapons where he don't need to press. But he'll be okay, he's going to make some shots and when we need D'Vauntes to score he's going to score.

Radford Head Coach Mike Jones Opening Statement ...

This is the biggest crowd I've had in uh...Georgetown must be a big deal. We knew coming into the game how good this basketball team is. I think even though Coach Thompson has a lot of freshmen playing right now there still a very talented team; they're big, they're strong, they really pay attention to detail on the defensive end. I thought in the first half we played exactly the way we wanted to. We got great looks, they didn't go down. Our defense was very solid we held them to 29 points which is, our goal is to keep teams under 30 each half. I thought we did a really good job of that, with the exception of a couple mental breakdowns that gave them a couple easy baskets. We were right where we wanted to be. In the second half we allowed our offensive lack of production to affect us mentally. Because we weren't scoring we lost some of our attention to detail in the defensive end and they were able to get a lot of easy baskets in the second half and stretch their lead out. I tip my hat to Coach Thompson, he has put together a really good team. Unfortunately we didn't give them a better game.

For those of us that haven't seen you guys play this year, do you try to get the ball inside as much as you did in the first half?...

Absolutely, the game hasn't changed that much. Even though the three point line is there and guys shoot a lot of threes. I think playing inside-out is the way to attack defenses and we tried to do that, we had a lot of success last game doing that. This game not quite as much. I think once we got it in, we didn't continue to really shape up and step into a shot strongly or confidently or get back inside with another drive. It's what brought us a lot of success last year in terms of playing inside-out and it's going to bring us a lot of success this year, it's just taking a little bit longer because I have emphasized so much defense. So our offense is going to get better.

Coach you have to thrilled when Josh Smith gets two early fouls, and sits ...

We also got two fouls on our center as well. Brandon is coming off the best game of his career, last year, I took a chance and put him back in in the first half and he picked up his third. I think without the big fella in there they can be a little faster and spread the court. He's got choices, if you can win the big power guy or you can win with the athletic team, then you're going to face so many offenses and defenses along the way it gives them a lot of versatility. I think they're a team that can go deep into the tournament.

Did your scouting report note that 13 could shoot as well as he did from behind the arc?...

Is that Paul White? Yeah we knew he was a tremendous player. As a freshman to have that kind of confidence to shoot the ball in that position; you know he plays the three, but he also plays the four and he's stretching the defense. He makes it tough, we had a game plan for it, unfortunately they got it inside off a post feed or driving and they were able to find him and he just knocked them down. I don't know how many he hit but they came in waves.

Aaron Bowen plays up and down minutes for them, what were you guys expecting from him?...

He's more of a driver than a shooter. Very athletic and long but a tremendous defender, and he can make shots if you leave him open, you know college basketball players; if you leave them open, dare them to shoot they're going to make shots. We expected him to really be able to drive the ball and create a lot of havoc defensively by getting in the passing lanes. He's very disruptive, he can do a lot of different things.

On coaching despite trailing by a wide margin. ...

In our league, what's Georgetown in? The Big East? Yeah we're not in the Big East where you're going to get six or seven teams in. We're going to get one team if another team like Coastal gets a higher RPI doesn't win it. They've beaten Auburn and couple other people in the league. Maybe if they luck out and get in at-large. For the most part we're dependent on one team to get into the NCAA's. This is one game, just like the Virginia Tech game was one game. We're trying to build our team. I tell them, I don't know how true it is, but I tell them I don't want to be great right now I want to be great in late January, early February. I actually want to be great right now and then, but our goal is to get it together and be firing on all cylinders come late January and early February.