Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory and point guard Adam Smith talk with reporters after a 72-52 loss to #4 Virginia in the 2016 ACC Tournament on Thursday.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with an opening comment from coach.
COACH GREGORY: Yeah, I told our guys I don’t know how many weeks ago, seven weeks ago, when we played them, during those 40 minutes we played better than Virginia. Tonight they played a lot better than we did.
They’re obviously very good. Caused us a lot of problems. Down two at half we felt pretty good because I thought we had a couple empty possessions with turnovers. Defensively other than eight quick points that Brogdon scored on a couple of missed coverages, I thought we had done a particularly good job defensively. We had some pretty good looks at the basket.
Second half, when Marcus went down, put us in a tough spot. I think it was a two- or four-point game at that time. We weren’t able to respond offensively enough when they got it going. That’s what they’ve been able to do.
They’re so good defensively, they’re consistent defensively, that all of a sudden they go on a stretch where they make some shots, then a four-, five-point game is a 13-, 15-point game. That’s what happened tonight. We didn’t play well enough to beat a team of that caliber.
We’ve been playing awfully well. Our guys have done an unbelievable job. But we ran into a team that played better during those 40 minutes than we did tonight. Hats off to them and the great year they’ve had. Now we move on.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Adam, what is the key in keeping them away from the big runs? What could you have done?
ADAM SMITH: Really just locked in. They had some transition points off our turnovers. If we limit that on offense, that keeps those points down. Just lock in, man, take care of the ball. That’s the key to our offense. And rebound.
Q. Coach, what was Marcus’ injury?
COACH GREGORY: Just like a butt bone, I guess. Landed on it pretty hard there.
I can’t remember what game it was, maybe the Duke game, he got taken out on a layup. Tailbone is I guess the medical term, more appropriate. So it’s been sore. He kind of reaggravated it. You can tell he’s just not himself after that. I think he’ll be okay, though.
Q. Adam, I asked you last night about Malcolm. What makes him so difficult to contain?
ADAM SMITH: I would say his size. He’s really versatile. He can get to the basket. He hits, you know, open shots. He plays really well within that offense. His teammates always know where he is.
But he’s playing really well as of late. All credit goes to him.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
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