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Georgetown 68, UMES 49
Washington, D.C. -- Verizon Center
Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Georgetown University Head Coach John Thompson III

On UMES...
That is a good team. I told (Devin) Martin, on their team, who is a very good player -- I think our guys did a very good job of guarding him today -- in many ways I think their team is like our team, they're much better than their record. They have some really good offensive players. Bobby (Collins) does a good job with them. Their defense is unorthodox, they keep you off balance. You look at their record and then you watch them on film and they're going to be really good before the year is over and I think it's going to be sooner than later with that group.

On Georgetown's play in the second half...
We started off missing a lay-up, then we had some turnovers and then all of a sudden they get momentum, they get energy. The feel of the game quickly changes, that's what athletics is all about, and we have to not do that.

On the importance of causing 14 first half turnovers...
I thought it helped, we got out in transition a little bit, and obviously D'Vauntes hit some shots. I haven't looked at the final numbers, but I felt like we gave all of them right back in the second half. We have to take care of the ball better than that.

On what he did to settle GU down after UMES started to press ...
I don't know that we did settle down. That's how they play. That was not a surprise, that's what we prepared for. I think we have to do a better job, when getting pressured, of responding to that as the person with the ball and the receivers. We had too many turnovers and I put them in the category of unforced turnovers, we just have to take care of the ball better. We have a team that when we are moving the ball someone at the other end is going to be able to score. We can put five guys on the court that can score, so we have to keep the ball hopping, keep the ball moving, which we didn't do a good enough job of in the second half.

On UMES isolating on offense to score...
Sometimes the offense is just better than the defense. They have good players, so it was not that someone fell asleep or a miscommunication, between (Dominque) Elliott and Martin, those are two guys that would thrive in the BIG EAST, not just could play, they could thrive in the BIG EAST. So they went to iso and those guys scored.

On having success going "small" during stretches...
One, I just wanted to let Little Tre (Campbell) to get his legs back and just get a little bit of rhythm. In the second half I just wanted to leave him out there as much as he physically could go, just to get back out there. We played similar lineups a good portion of last year. They weren't necessarily a big team, so it was better matching up when we went small. All of those guys can initiate the offense for us and make shots, so it worked today.

On D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera's performance...
I don't worry about his offense. I've lost a lot of hours and night's sleep over a lot of different things as it relates to this young man, but none of them have to do with offense and it never will. If the ball isn't going in, who cares, it means the basket is crooked.

On Georgetown's offense against zone defenses with Syracuse coming up on Saturday...
I thought their zone was effective because it was unorthodox. They went man a few possessions and we got some good looks and they went right back to it. We'll see. It's easy to sit here and say, "the last two games you played against a zone." What Bryant did and how they play their zone is different from Maryland Eastern Shore and that's different from how Syracuse plays it. So, yes, you've gone against a zone, but with each one we have to look at different ways to attack it.

On Syracuse coming up next...
It's easy to talk about Syracuse to focus on their defense and talk about their zone, but they are a very good offensive team. What we do on the other end of the floor and how we get stops is as important is how we attack the defense they're going to play.

On what Georgetown takes from its last two wins...
We're taking two wins, which we needed. That's stating the obvious, but it still feels good to take two wins...Saturday is going to be completely different. Saturday is Georgetown -- Syracuse everything else goes out the window.

Senior Guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera

On having a great shooting night...
It feels great man. My teammates just supported me pretty much through all the games and I finally feel like the weight is off my shoulders a little bit. And coach has been telling me to just keep playing. Like he said, he's not worried about the offense, so shots were going to fall eventually and I appreciate my teammates for just continuing to find me and continuing to look for me when I'm open."

On whether or not he knew he was going to have such a good shooting night after sinking the first 3...
It was just a rhythm shot and like I said, my teammates just continued to find me and you know it was just shots.

On balancing outside scoring with taking the ball to the rim...
I don't really think about it too much. I just try to take the best shot and continue to stay in rhythm and continue to be aggressive and make plays.

On guarding UMES guard Devin Martin...
He's good man. Over the summer we played at quite a few gyms and saw the type of player that he was, so I knew that at some point, he was going to try to be really aggressive against us, knowing that we're from around the same area. He's a great player and like he (JT3) said, he could play in the Big East with anybody and he's a tough matchup."

On Georgetown's depth now that Paul White and Tre Campbell are healthy...
It's great. I think they are key parts to what we're trying to work toward this year. Tre (Campbell) brings us a lot of energy off the bench and so does Paul (White), he's a great rebounder, can defend, can rebound, so it's great to have them back.

On the Syracuse game coming up...
We need to win again, we need another win. Especially Syracuse, especially Syracuse.

UMES Head Coach Bobby Collins

Opening Statement ...
Turnovers really cost us the first half and we dug ourselves a nice hole. I'm also playing with 10 new players, not to make any excuses. This team is still trying to learn who they are, trying to identify themselves. We are still trying to find out who we are and playing with team chemistry and camaraderie and playing with the effort that I expect every night, like we did in the second half. And once we found that rhythm and played with the effort that we like to play with, we could be a pretty good team.

[Georgetown] did a very good job of making shots. (D'Vauntes) Smith-Rivera was a man among boys tonight. He scored 30 points and he ran his team. He was definitely the foundation to their success tonight. I know they have a well-rounded team, but he was very good tonight.

On what UMES did to slow Smith-Rivera down in the second half ...
I thought our zone caused him a little trouble. They really didn't score in our zone, they scored in transition and they scored off our turnovers in the first half. In the second half, we really wanted to slow the game down with our zone and I thought our zone was very effective. Of course, when it broke down he was the one on the end knocking down the open shot.

On whether defensive/offensive style of play wore his team down ...
It definitely wore us down. We had, I think it was with six minutes to go, pulled to within 10 or 11 and I had to sub, and they got to the basket and got to the free throw line and made their free throws. That was definitely the difference in them stretching the game out.

On how UMES limited Bradley Hayes and Jessie Govan ...
I thought the zone caused them problems and we didn't allow them to get the ball inside very much. When they did score, it was Smith-Rivera on the end of it every time knocking down a three, an open three. The ball just happened to find him every time, for whatever reason. We knew that he could shoot the basketball, we knew how perfective he was and we just wanted to try to slow him down in the second half, but the ball kept finding him in transition.

On young roster ...
We are a long ways away. We are a long ways away, but unfortunately we don't have time to wait. We start our conference play on Saturday versus North Carolina Central, who went undefeated in our league last year. We know what to expect. This is a team that, last year, had a lot of success - won 18 games - when we were picked 13th [and we] finished third. So we know how hard we have to work and the core guys of that same team are back this year. We will be ready to play. This game tonight, the second half made us realize that we can play with anybody. They just have to trust each other and trust the coaches.

On guarantee games ...
I think it is great for our players to come in and play a team like Georgetown, with the history and the success they've had in the past. I really enjoy coming here. No, this not our last guarantee. We are on our way to Michigan State. Then we play Pittsburgh. Then we play Maryland. We have our work cut out. Last year, we had some success winning guarantee games, beating St. Bonaventure, Duquesne and Fordham - three A-10 schools. Of course, the schools that I named doesn't compare, but we will be ready to compete and anything can happen on any given night with our team because we shoot the ball better than we have shot the ball. We just haven't gotten all three guys to shoot the ball well at the same time.

On Georgetown's issues versus the zone ...
They do a lot in that Princeton offense they run. They pick people apart. They even picked Duke apart and Duke is one of the best defensive teams in the country. We knew we had to switch our defense to keep them off balance and we did a very good job of that. We trapped some, we went straight some then we switched to man some and kind of kept them off rhythm. Again, their success came from when turned the ball over and in transition defense.

On using the same offense/defense strategy going forward ...
I didn't do it as much as I like to do it. That is why I play a lot of people because we expend a lot of energy on picking up full court man-to-man and trapping and pressing. In our league, we have a lot of good coaches and I'm not going to let players dictate what they do. We are going to dictate, defensively, what they do. We figured if we could do it on this level, we can definitely do it on our level.

Senior Guard Devin Martin

On what he told his team about what to expect from Georgetown ...
I just told them to expect (Georgetown) to come out and play hard. They are a high major team so we have to come out and have energy and intensity right from the jump because we are already undermanned, coming in playing against a high major team. I knew that if we had intensity and tenacity in the beginning of the game, we could play with them.

On guarantee games from a player's perspective ...
Just approach them like you would any other game on any other night. You don't look at anybody as `we should come out and just lose this game because we are playing against Michigan State and Maryland'. We are going to give it all we got, no matter who we play. They put their jerseys on just like we do, so we are going to come out and give it max effort and max intensity every night. We have the team and we have the pieces and the coaching staff to do it, we just have to put it all together like he says and trust and believe in what he says.