Georgia Tech basketball coach Brian Gregory’s first season included decisive losses, glimpses of potential and ultimately a record of 11-20.
Gregory met with reporters in his office last Thursday to review the season, look ahead and also discuss the dismissal of guard Glen Rice Jr.
Questions and answers were edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: When did you decide to dismiss Glen Rice Jr.?
A: Obviously, this latest incident [in which Rice was charged in relation to the March 8 DUI arrest of a graduate assistant] just confirmed the path that we were on. I'm not going to talk a lot about that. That thing's still out with the legal stuff, so I've just got to be careful on that. But that's kind of where we're at.
Q: What was his reaction to being dismissed?
A: When it comes to stuff like that, we've had a good relationship on difficult situations before. I'm disappointed, it's unfortunate. We need to move on and he needs to move on, and I'll help him any way that I can. That's it in a nutshell in terms of what the next steps need to be.
Q: Did you accomplish what you might reasonably have hoped to accomplish this year?
A: When you're able to take a step back and look at some of the objectives, I think we were on point on a lot of them. You obviously want to win more games. ... But so much of the work that we needed to accomplish was going to be below-the-surface type stuff, that work that I feel good about wasn't always going to result in either performances good enough to win games or more games.
I think, to a man, the guys who went through this year [and are] coming back are excited about getting ready for the spring and the summer and excited about the progress that each of them made individually. When you look at that, it’s off the charts, and also the difference in the team and the program right now than where it was a year ago.
Q: Did the season develop in a way that you had to adjust schemes or plans for players according to how the season or the players developed?
A: Where you wanted to get to at the end didn't necessarily change, but along the way you had to be fluid in terms of some flexibility on some stuff to get a better evaluation on how guys handle different things. ....
A good example, I’m not sure going into the season that we thought that we’d be running some special plays for Julian Royal to shoot some threes. And as he continued to work on his game and became more comfortable, we started doing that the last 10 games or so. And I think that, in the future for him, is going to be an asset for him.
Q: Do you anticipate being able to do more schematically next season because of returners being more familiar and [because of] the new recruiting class?
A: I think we'll be able to play much closer to how I eventually would like us to play, and that's with pressure defense. We'll never gamble a lot. It's not how we play. But also [we'll] play at a much faster pace on offense where we're pushing the ball on every possession.
Q: What are examples of ways that you want to see your players improved over the spring and summer?
A: Daniel [Miller] and Kam [Holsey], those guys have to understand that they're going to get the ball, so their aggressiveness and their decision making — when to be aggressive to score, when to kick it out — has to improve. …
I think overall, our perimeter players need to get much better with the ball and they need to take thousands and thousands of shots. Off-the-dribble, spot-ups, and those guys need to get in the gym together because one of the things that we have to get better at is making plays for each other.
Q: Will the point guard you bring in be as crucial a recruit as any?
A: The point-guard position is extremely important, and so I thought the progress that Mfon [Udofia] made, within a season, was as impressive as I've seen in a long time. Here's the thing: He had career numbers in points, field-goal percentage, 3-point field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage, assists and rebounds. So it wasn't just due [to the fact] that he played more [because his shooting percentages improved]. ...
He needs to make another big jump this spring and summer. He didn’t play as well as he’d like to in the last game. He knows that. But in the games previous to that, he played pretty darn well.
Q: What do you know about the ACC that you didn’t in the beginning of January?
A: It's a lot more physical than people give it credit for. They let you play. ... Coming from all that time in the Big Ten [at Michigan State and Northwestern], we always used to kind of look down on the ACC. I remember getting ready to play ACC teams and we would say, 'We're tougher. They don't want to play physical. We can beat the [expletive] out of them. Go after them.' That type of deal. I think that's changed.
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