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Big East Conference Hoya Saxa

Men's Basketball

Georgetown Vs. UNC Asheville Postgame Quotes

Dec. 19, 2015

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Georgetown University Head Coach John Thompson III

On relying on outside shots despite a size advantage ...

I have to go back and look at that. I'm not sure.

On if it was a surprise to get out to a slow start for the second consecutive game ...

We're in a bad place right now and we have to pull ourselves out of it. Are the two games related? I'm not sure, but I think that we have to pull ourselves out of it and I think everyone in that locker room understands that. We have to go back and evaluate, reevaluate, reanalyze a lot of different things. I still believe in this group, but we just have to get ourselves out of this hole we're in right now. You want to say, great, there is a lot of season left for that to happen and so we just have to fight.

On if the team is passing side-to-side too much instead of looking inside ...

Maybe it's easy to say that today. In general I don't think that's the case. They played that 1-3-1 most of the second half, but I thought we got the ball to the middle. Without a doubt a key point is we took threes when we shouldn't have. We cut it and were one possession away, now they're open threes for guys that can make them, but I just have to go back and explain to them why that might not be a good three at this point of the game as opposed to another point of the game. Sitting here now it's easy to say, yeah we should've gone inside, gone inside, gone inside, but they did a good job of taking that away. Then we did and I thought we got good stuff. BJ had six assists, that has to be a career-high, but I think when we did go in they were coming down so hard that he ended up dropping it off for layups or kicking it out to where it should've been instead of forcing the ball; I thought he made the right decisions down there.

On Georgetown's trouble at the free-throw line for a second consecutive game ...

If the question is, have we been practicing (free throws)? The answer is yes, but the ball didn't go in and that was key.

On Georgetown's defense being a step behind ...

Defensively there is a lot that we could, should, would, hopefully will in the future do differently. At the end of the day, you can talk about points in the paint and this, that and the other, but the last couple of games our defense has been what's let us down. It's glaring. To answer your question, yes, the defense has to be significantly better.

On Georgetown's bench production ...

I can't sit here and feel like anyone played well. We've been getting production from our bench, I'm not sure about them, but we've been getting production from our bench. They have to, they bring (Dylan Smith) off the bench and he's obviously one of their better players, better scorers.

On Georgetown's difficulties with smaller teams ...

I think a lot of it, and I guess I'm programmed to think like this, but a lot of it is us. It's not necessarily the opposition. Their guys, we talked about this a lot the last couple of days, their post players are short, shorter than most post players we play against, but they are every game and they're used to it. They do a good job of using it to their advantage. We went in planning on taking a few looks away that they ended up getting anyway, but you have to give them credit. They know every night they're going to be shorter and a lot of what their offense is structured to use that as an advantage as opposed to their detriment.

On if UNC Asheville's changing defenses "put them on their heels" ...

No, we expected that. In looking at the film, as much as any team we've played, we knew they'd come down three possessions of man, then four possessions of 2-3, then three possessions of 1-3-1. They actually stayed with the 1-3-1 in the second half longer than they traditionally stick with one defense. I think we were getting decent movement; it wasn't pretty in that it wasn't structured, but we got it into the heart where we needed and then we attacked or kicked it out. Offense was not the issue.

On if he recalls being in this sort of "bad spot" at a similar time during previous seasons ...

I'm sure we've been here before, but right now I can't recall anything other than today.

On L.J. Peak's foul trouble and if it affects the team ...

It does and we've tried to analyze it and help him out, but we're a different team (without him). The good thing is we've had others step up, but we miss his defensive presence. He and I have to figure that out. I intentionally left him on the bench the start of the second half for a significant chunk with the thought of let's leave him out so we can have him at the end.

On D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera's shooting ...

I still will say what I said several games ago. I'm not worried about D'Vauntes's shot. He has to take the right shots at the right times and when he does that he makes more than he misses.

Senior center Bradley Hayes

On Georgetown's defensive breakdowns ...

I think we just have to be disciplined for the whole shot clock. I think there were a lot of good defensive possessions that we had, but I think we eased up when the shot clock started going down and that's what got them a lot of those late backdoor cuts and dump offs.

On UNC Asheville's ability to score in the paint ...

I'm not surprised, that's something we went over in scout. We knew that they were going to be aggressive down low, even though they're small

On if he was bothered by UNC Asheville's quickness ...

Personally I don't feel like it had any effect on me, I'll have to go back and watch film and maybe that will tell me something different.

On if he felt he should've gotten the ball more ...

I think everybody would want to see the ball a lot more, but that just comes with being a basketball player. I have complete confidence in all my teammates and the shots they took are good shots, so I'm not upset at them for taking the shots that they took and it's like Coach Thompson said, we have to go back and talk to some of the younger guys and tell them in certain situations when not to shoot and when to shoot.

UNC Ashville Head Coach Nick McDevitt

On the victory ...

I think certainly its gives a little bit of confidence going into conference play. We have two more we need to worry about with Elon and Furman coming up. I am really proud of the way these young men played; two freshmen and a sophomore (Dwayne Sutton, Dylan Smith, Kevin Vannatta) sitting beside me. I thought that when we built a nine-point lead, I believe it was, Georgetown came back and tied the game up. Usually you can see some freshmen and sophomores get awfully rattled out there. Georgetown is a power conference team in a big arena but my team held its composure together, stayed together, was tough and we came out here with a good win.

On Ashville's alternating defense ...

I think it's important that when you're facing good players, as Georgetown has, you can't let them get in a rhythm. You have to find ways to keep them off balance a little. I thought by switching from a five to a man defense to a zone to a 1-3-1 gap defense, we kept them off balance; sometimes particularly, when you play open-post motion teams, the kind of get in a rhythm of shooting 3's and a lot of backdoor shots. We also wanted to play zone because Georgetown players are huge. We couldn't just play man-to-man defense with their frontline 6-8, 6-9, 7 foot. We knew we were at a disadvantage when it comes to size so we tried to use our length and our athletic ability around the perimeter to try to negate some of that size.

On Georgetown's loss to Monmouth earlier this week ...

We mentioned it, but to be honest, very briefly. We just wanted to focus on who we are and who Georgetown is. That has been our primary focus leading up to the game. We did talk about a little bit about that teams that have had success have been smaller teams. Teams that are very similar in size and style. They've played very well against in a great win over Syracuse, Wisconsin and in the Duke game, so we wanted to involve their bigs a little bit around the perimeter. Again, I thought we did a good of that.

On Georgetown's shooting ...

I thought that us switching back from zone to man, put them a little bit out of rhythm. That has been who we are, who we've been earlier this year. We've got versatile pieces, lengthy guards and it makes it difficult to just stand there and shoot. Usually, you may be shooting over a 6-1 or 6-2 guard, but we, the length that we have, made it a little more difficult for them.

On scheduling games against teams such as Georgetown ...

Our goal every year is to win the league tournament and when we're going to face a power conference team, in an arena this size and I don't want to get to the tournament and it be the first time that there young men have ever been there. When we've played Texas A&M, Tennessee and Georgetown in big arenas and big conference teams, the young men keep getting more and more comfortable and if we're fortunate enough to win the league and advance to the tournament, it's not half time before they get their eyes out of the rafters. They've kind of been there, done that. So again, I was really proud of how we came together. It's a big win for us.

No. 22 | Dwayne Sutton | Guard | Fr.

On getting to the bucket on some big plays in the second half ...

That's just part of my game. I know I hit a couple of 3's so they were going to play up a little closer for the second half and I just happened to beat them off the dribble and made it to the rim a little easier.

No. 10 | Kevin Vannatta | Guard | So.

On his strategy after missing his first couple of shots ...

I just was told to keep shooting with confidence and if you miss a few, that's going to happen ââ'¬" everybody misses a few. Just kept playing the game and took what they gave us ââ'¬" the whole team really was playing well; we were working really well together.

No. 24 | Dylan Smith | Guard | Fr.

On whether or not GU could find him on the court ...

On offense, our bigs do well passing the ball out of the post and Will Weeks is one of the best at it. So I just kinda move around, try to find an open spot and let him find me.

On GU's play over the last four or five possessions and whether or not they were nervous ...

Not really. Smith-Rivera is a senior, he's been here and done that so I'm pretty sure he wasn't nervous. We just wanted to get this win as a team. We just wanted to come together and push it out. We run four-minute segments at practice and we want to win every segment. The last four minutes we just wanted to win it.

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Players Mentioned

L.J. Peak

#0 L.J. Peak

F
6' 5"
Freshman
D

#4 D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera

G
6' 3"
Freshman
Bradley Hayes

#42 Bradley Hayes

C
7' 0"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

L.J. Peak

#0 L.J. Peak

6' 5"
Freshman
F
D

#4 D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera

6' 3"
Freshman
G
Bradley Hayes

#42 Bradley Hayes

7' 0"
Freshman
C