Post-game quotes from Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner, Tech guards Josh Okogie and Tadric Jackson and Boston College coach Jim Christian following the Yellow Jackets’ 65-54 win over Boston College Saturday at McCamish Pavilion.
“To be able to win the game without Quinton (Stephens), we rely on him so much, and for him to go down early (and win), it shows you this group of guys, we’ve become a good basketball team and their fight and their resolve and their grit to – anytime they’ve been knocked down, they’ve always found a way to keep coming back and not let it avalanche. That’s a credit to our young men.”
“Tadric Jackson, he took that bad shot to start the game when he got in. I jumped him. I sat him down. I gave him a butt chewing and I put him back in and, to his credit, he responded. He was a big-time player today, played at a very, very high level, had a career-high 29 and I’m proud of him for him responding like that. And it’s a direct correlation to the last two days of practice, he stayed after practice and worked with great intensity on his game, and that’s why he had a good game today, really played at a high level.”
“To sit here at six wins (in the ACC) at this time – again, like I said on the radio – this is still year one of a rebuild job. We’ve still got a long way to go. You don’t take it for granted. We’re still far from being out of the woods, but it’s pretty miraculous for us to be sitting where we’re sitting right now at this point in February, to be in the situation we’re in. It’s a real credit to those young men, them understanding about a team.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. In the first half, you know how many layups we missed? It was more than several. I didn’t know if I was going to call (finance and administration associate AD) Marvin (Lewis) and say, ‘Do we need to give everyone their money back for that first half? That was not a good show.’ It just is what it is. I’ve never been a part of that where, you know how many layups, like, point blank, short layups (were missed)?”
“It’s very hard to win on the road in this league. You know how well we played at Virginia Tech and Virginia? Like, we played at a high level. And I was telling this to someone earlier today, like in the other leagues I’ve been in, if we played really well, we’re winning. In this league, you play well, you could lose. When Notre Dame played here, they played really well when they lost. That’s what makes this league so good, is you can play really well and still lose.”
Josh Okogie
“I think I really wasn’t worried I was missing shots. We played great defense. We came in at halftime right here, they scored 22 points, so the defense wasn’t the problem. Come the second half, we weren’t stressing over the offense. We knew the offense was going to come. But we just had to stay consistent defensively. That’s what we did. We held them to 32 points in the second half while we scored 50.”
Tadric Jackson
“I just feel like we were having a lack of focus (in the first half). The team kind of took the game for granted. The offense was great, we were getting great looks. I just felt like we needed to finish. We were defending great, holding them to a low percentage from the 3 and from the 2. I just felt like we weren’t focused in the first half.”
Jim Christian
“He’s a very strong guard. We knew he was going to drive it. Towards the end of the first half, he really started driving the ball. That’s what we talked about at halftime. He’s going to drive the ball, he’s going to get the ball on the wing and he’s going to power drive it to the middle of the floor. And he started the second half doing that, I think two or three times. Got him going. He’s a good post-up guard, so in that area he’s a little bit of a matchup problem for us, a big guard like that. But he played really well.”
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