UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 2, 2022

Tom Crean

Men's Basketball Press Conference

Arkansas 99, Georgia 73

TOM CREAN: The game was going a little too fast for us in the first half. We were giving up too many baskets, but at least we were coming down and scoring. We had some bad offensive possessions start of the second half which got their break going, which got Umude hot. Went to 12 on those open threes and our offense was a recipient as much as anything of not being good defensively getting back.

They shot the ball extremely well. I always believe three point shooting is contagious. They were averaging making five threes a game coming into the game in the league and they make 15.

We only made one in the second half. They make nine in the second half and we make one in the second half. It's a big part of the game.

But also the points off turnovers. We had very poor point guard play tonight all the way across the board. Our decision making struggled there and just too many turnovers that turned into points.

Unfortunately that's the game for us there. So the threes and the points off turnovers. We got in the paint 56 time, which is a high for us on the year, but only came away with the 30 points. So we weren't making the next pass the way we needed to, we weren't scoring, we had some flukey things, Aaron's missed dunk, couple of those things that we would look to go in. But it didn't, and they were able to be in control because we weren't scoring as well and they were scoring on hitting threes.

Go ahead.

Q. Kario was saying he thought the team lost energy in the second half. Did you sense that at all? You mentioned the poor point guard play.

TOM CREAN: Yeah, I think you got to start with -- Kario would be a product of that. I don't know if it's energy. When the offense is not going as well for you -- it was going well for us in the first half, but when the offense is not going as well for us it's depleting, right, and that happens.

And then they're making open threes, so we're missing shots on one end, they're making open threes on the other end. It opens up the game a little bit in their favor.

But the problem -- and this is -- it's a rare player, and we don't have very many guys like this, and it really hurt tonight not having Jaxon. When Jaxon only plays 15 minutes and he can defend the way that he can, and he wasn't as good in the second half, might have been thinking about his fouls, but the energy is going to go -- you're a rare player, okay, and it's a rare team that can overcome on the defensive end and have a stop mentality and be locked into all the things that have to happen with the communication, switching, when you're not making shots on offense.

We don't have guys that -- we don't have that maturity. We do not have that maturity, and it's an issue. A lot of people have it around the country, but we don't have that. We've got to have a defensive mindset, whether it's in transition, getting hands up, whatever it is, and you just can't -- your offense is going to come back.

So I think what happens is that's where the energy goes a little bit, because the shots aren't falling and you start to lose spirit and then it can fatigue you real quick.

Q. Kind of following up on that, even in the first half seemed like when you all were making shots the defense was struggling. Anything in particular...

TOM CREAN: Yeah, I mean, we shot in the first half, what, 58%, they shot 59. That's a rare deal. It was one of those games in the first half like that.

But then we got away from making plays through the paint for others the way that it needed to be and we did some uncharacteristic things. Noah's left-hand drive. That's not something he does. That is not something we work on, throwing it up there and letting the shot blocker pin it. I think that's what it was more than anything.

So the defensive numbers get skewed because they're getting some run-outs. We gave up 17 points off turnovers in the second half and that's not good.

Q. Coach, we asked Aaron some questions earlier and he seemed so incredibly sad and looked like he took this loss hard personally. How important is it that he as a leader on this team, as well as you as, the coach, can find a way to turn a loss like tonight into a motivator?

TOM CREAN: We will. We will. I have to watch the film right now and go from there. If somebody has trouble turning the page to play on Saturday, then they won't play. It's pretty simple. Bottom line is you have to.

When you lose a game like this is becomes a mirror test. You look in your own mirror, not the two-way mirror or the funny mirror, your own mirror and say, Okay, what could I have done better?

That's what players, leaders, whoever it is, freshmen, sophomore, juniors, seniors have to be able to do it, and starts with the coaches, too, starts with me. The bottom line is I'm not going to -- if we have guys that struggle to get up to play the No. 1 team in the country in our own building Saturday then really they can go sit with their families. I can't see that being an issue.

Bottom line is we need to be ready to play, and we'll have two days to get ourselves ready to play.

Q. With Umude, not too much of a three point shooter normally, but he definitely was tonight. Is that something you saw tonight?

TOM CREAN: No, shooting 29% in the league, 23% the last five games, and he just got open, he got hot. So I think he's a veteran player. He scored a ton of points at his previous school. He was big-time recruit in the portal. They did a great job getting him and he got hot.

Again, we gave them some open shots which escalated his confidence.

Q. Tom, if I could sneak in two here. First of all, you obviously had to pull in a lot of players this year together. Is it discouraging or not surprising, the fact that, what are we, 20 some games into the season that we're still having halves or games like this?

TOM CREAN: I don't know if it's discouraging. I try not to get discouraged. It's disappointing that we can't get our communication right. We have got to continue to work through that. When we do a good job offensively and the ball is moving and we're getting really good looks, whether we miss or make, it's good for us.

But it cannot transfer to the defensive end when it's not happening and not have your physicality, awareness, hands, most importantly our talk and communication on switches and things of that nature.

It's very hard for us with this group without a rim protector to just come down and be a standard defense. We have got to be able to switch, we have got to be able to do different things on people. Again, they got hot because of some bad offense at the start of the second half.

But no, I don't get discouraged. These guys work extremely hard. We just don't have guys that been through this understand that their leadership here is as important as anything they can ever possibly have, and because they got a chance it impact it.

We don't do enough of that, so it's got to continue to be built upon and worked forward and find ways to give them every opportunity to win a game that they possibly can.

Q. Big picture, obviously the transfer portal has affected everybody in basketball and football. Just curious, a guy that's been coaching basketball for a long time, has the portal impacted the way you would prefer to coach and prefer to build a team? Has it hurt you at all?

TOM CREAN: Very good question. Yeah, very good question. There is no, well, this is the standard. Okay, this is what we do every year. Let's go back to that. It's not like I go to February 1st from last year or year before and say, Okay, we're gone do that today in practice, because every time is different.

This one, because they haven't been together, chemistry on the floor -- and when we do it we're very, very good. We're getting great looks. Every time we attack, drove under the board tonight, made another pass. We were getting great looks.

When we get away from what's working that's what hurts us. I think you have too many guys that haven't come up in a system, but that's the way it's going to be. That's the way it's going to be, so you've got to do the best job you can in the portal being able to find people that fit what you're trying to do that have had some responsibility in their game, right, that have been responsible for their teammates.

I think when you bring in new people it's harder to get that because there is not the veterans. This will be a different story to me PJ Horne doesn't get hurt because he knew what we were doing, and certainly be a much different story if Jailyn Ingram doesn't get hurt, but they did. They did, so we don't have them.

So I think it's just the way business is going to be done from here on out. You're going to be putting together new guys every year. You just hope that you have some veterans along the way to show those new guys what it is. We just don't have that. We've got to kind of learn it as a whole here.