Their final games at Georgia Tech went nothing like they had hoped.
Hoping to make a deep run at the ACC Tournament as defending champions, Yellow Jackets seniors Michael Devoe and Jordan Usher saw their college careers reach the end Tuesday night with an 84-74 loss to Louisville in the first round of the tournament, held in New York at the Barclays Center. Tech fell behind by 27 points before staging a late rally.
Despite their disappointment, both gave thoughtful comments about the game and their time at Tech.
Devoe: āWe wanted to go out with a fight. Seeing that we were down 27, we wanted to fight. We knew that this was going to be our last game if we didnāt fight back and try to compete. We looked at each other and we were like, weāve got to fight back and weāve got to compete. We did a really good job. Iāve got to give a lot of credit to all the young guys, too, as well. They got better over the season, and I am excited to see their future, as well.
āIām proud to be a Georgia Tech guy, a guy thatāll be able to graduate from here and do big things. So I want to give a lot of thanks to the coaching staff for developing me all over these four years. Itās been a great four years of my life, one of the best (times) of my life. Iāve created brotherhoods that will last a lifetime, created relationships off the court as well, too, that will be lifetime relationships. So Iām grateful for all those. And itās a true blessing to be here at Tech.ā
Usher: āI canāt explain the feeling that is being able to wear the Tech jersey. I feel like I donāt want to take it off. I want to take it home, ride on the plane with it. When youāre down so much and itās a definitive ending if you lose, itās kind of like ā I donāt know if you play Candy Crush, but when you run out of lives and it gives you a time limit before you can play again, thatās how I feel. Like, on my phone, I can just pay and get some more hearts and play again. I can give you $2.99 and play again, but you canāt do that in real life. You just know the timeās ticking down.
āAnd you kept looking up, and when (Louisville guard Jarrod West) ā I felt like I was right there (to affect the shot) ā hit the deep 3 (late in the game to help seal the game), I was just like, āMan, I feel like I got stabbed in the chest. Iām cool with taking an āL,ā come back and fight tomorrow.ā I like our attitude that we came out with. Obviously, I donāt ever want to lose. I want to win every game, but these are my brothers. Coach (Josh) Pastner took me in. Coach (Anthony) Wilkins, coach (Julian) Swartz, coach (Eric) Reveno, our managers. I wish I could say everybodyās name. Tech means so much to me. Like I tweeted the other day, like, I am Georgia Tech. Like, I wish I could turn into the actual institution, for real. Itās turned me into a man. Itās been some of my most fun times in my life, for real.ā
Coach Josh Pastner: āYou want to win every game. I want to win every possession. When you lose, you go home and you donāt sleep for days, and it eats at you. That all being said, the joy of seeing young men grow and develop is still a joy of coaching. And seeing a guy like Jordan Usher and Michael Devoe ā seeing when Jordan came in, like, heās so aware of not even using a curse word now, and Iām so proud of him for that. And Iām just proud of his development in that.
āMichael Devoe opening up. He came in, he was so quiet and wouldnāt talk and now he opens up and expresses himself. Iām just proud of these two young men. You can see their development, and thatās a real joy.
āAnd the way they treat people. One of our pillars of our program is how you treat people. Iām real big about that. I donāt care who it is. Whether itās the president of the United States or itās the janitor, you treat everyone with respect, you treat everyone the right way, and these two guys embody that. Thatās important. Kids come, people come that can do nothing for them or us, but the way they treat āem and make āem feel like a million bucks is really powerful for our program. And to see these two guys, how theyāve grown as young men, Iām really, really proud of them. Iām really proud of them.ā
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