Alabama - Georgia Postgame Quotes
1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2009
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Alabama Quotes
Interim head coach Philip Pearson
Opening statement ...
"It was an interesting, tough week but our guys hung in there and fought through it. I just asked them to come out tonight and play as hard as they could. I felt like the start of the game was going to be very important and I wanted to get off the best start that we could. I asked them to set the tempo for the rest of the year, as far as how we are going to play. We had a little bit of a lull there in the middle of the first half but we were able to get the job done."
On having a long week with two games and short time to prepare for Georgia ...
"It was tough. The guys hung in there and have been great ever since practice on Monday afternoon. I met with everybody on Monday night and talked to everyone's family and parents and so forth. Our guys have hung in there incredibly well. We had a tough game at Arkansas. We got back about one o'clock on Friday morning. We had a short practice yesterday for about an hour and fifteen minutes and showed them some tape. We got back over here today and got ready for Georgia. They're a tough team to play. I know they're record isn't necessarily where they'd like it to be, but they're a good team. They guard you and they're very tough around the basket. They're a physical team. I was proud of our guys. They hung in there."
On the play of JaMychal Green and Senario Hillman ...
"JaMychal has certainly done a good job. We've got some other guys that can score the ball around the basket, I believe. Senario, I don't think anybody knows this or not, but he was throwing up before the game. He had to come off the court during pre-game warm-ups. He went back in the locker room after we came out in the second half and was throwing up. He put up some nice numbers and played hard. He didn't feel very well about the way he played on Thursday night. He and I sat down and watched a little tape yesterday afternoon and he assured me that he would be ready today and he was."
On the first half play of the Tide ...
"The inside and the outside go together. A lot of times you can get the ball to the inside and kick it back outside and have some of these guys spotting up, like Alonzo Gee, Mikhail Torrance, Anthony Brock and Senario Hillman made a shot or two out there tonight. That's the way we are going to try to play."
On the play of Demetrius Jemison and Brandon Hollinger ...
"I told Demetrius from day one that I felt like there was a need for a fourth post player, and we were going to make it a point to play him. He's done a nice job at this point. I told Brandon I feel like there are going to be some opportunities for him. I know he hasn't played like he would have like to played earlier in the year. We are going to get some opportunities for him and we'll see what he does with them."
Senior guard Alonzo Gee
On Coach Philip Pearson's first win ...
"It was a good win for us. He helped us out a lot in the offense and defense he ran. It was just a good win for us tonight."
On he and Senario Hillman getting hot from the floor early in the game ...
"It's always good to get into a rhythm early in the game. We both were able to get into a good rhythm and finish the game strong."
On Alabama's defense ...
"We were just able to stay solid on the defensive end. We were just able to stay solid. That's basically all we did."
On importance of getting this win after the past week ...
"It means a lot because I feel we needed to win. We got this on under our belt but it's just one game. We have to get ready for our game Thursday on the road."
On setting a tone for the rest of the year ...
"We just have to be aggressive from the start. We have to be able to finish strong. We just have to come out and be ready to play every game."
Freshman forward JaMychal Green
On being productive offensively ...
"Alonzo (Gee) and Senario (Hillman) knocked down some big shots and they left the middle wide open for me. They were able to get the ball inside and I was able to finish."
On Coach Philip Pearson getting his first win ...
"I told him great job. He's a great coach. He knows what he's doing. This is just a great win for him also."
On frustration after a couple shots rimmed out ...
"It was very frustrating but my teammates helped me keep a level head."
Georgia Quotes
Interim head coach Pete Herrmann
Opening statement ...
"I think the most challenging thing was having to turnaround and play in 48-hours after being on this emotional rollercoaster. I've been with Coach (Dennis) Felton for 11 years, every practice and every game, and to not have in the game and the two practices up to this game was very different and very tough emotionally. I would have liked to have won this game for Coach Felton and we didn't do that."
"We talked about two things really. We talked about effort and unselfishness in the past two days and I thought that we got good effort and very little selfishness. We had 16 assists, but, we still had the 20 turnovers. If you're scoring 70 points and you still have 20 turnovers, but you can cut that in half, then you probably win that game. Part of it is youth, part of it is trying to make that play to put your team ahead and you don't need to do that. You just need play in the flow and control the game."
" We got a lot of great effort from a lot of our younger players. Thompkins had a terrific game and Dustin Ware showed great leadership for a freshman. We're going to continue to be enthused and be excited about playing and playing in the SEC."
Freshman forward Howard Thompkins
"We all are sad about the loss of Coach (Dennis) Felton, but we still have a season to finish. Coach Felton did the best job that he could and Coach Herrmann is going to step in and lead us. We're going to keep depending on eachother to stay strong and play hard."
"Coach Herrmann brings so much enthusiasm and he is such a great coach. The way things happened we had to just let it go and keep on pushing. We played just as hard for Coach Herrmann as we did for Coach Felton."
"I'm just going to keep playing and doing whatever my teammates need me to do. I hit a couple shots and I'm happy personally but we still have great strides to make in the SEC."
"Coach Herrmann emphasized that he wanted to see effort and toughness from us today and honestly I feel like we did that. We missed a couple shots down the stretch but as a team we played the way we wanted to play."
Senior guard Corey Butler
"First half, first game I think we played well overall for Coach Herrmann. Of course problems that have been troubling us all year like giving up offensive rebounds and turning the ball over in the clutch came up. But I think we played well overall. We played unselfishly and we just wanted to share the ball. Coach Herrmann asks that all we do is play with effort and that's what we did."
"Well he (Herrmann) does some things differently from Coach Felton, nothing out of the ordinary, but he did a great job coming in. The coaching staff, all of them, stayed on us making sure that we were prepared to play this game. Though Coach Felton is gone and that's unfortunate we still got a game to play."
