UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 1, 2022

Tom Crean

Men's Basketball Press Conference

Tennessee - 75, Georgia - 68

TOM CREAN: As I said to the team, I look at the stat sheet, and I don't know what to tell them on where we lost the game. They fought their butts off. I mean, they just, they fought, they believed, they didn't flinch. We played a great team.

There's definitely some teams in this league that can win a National Championship. Tennessee is certainly one of them. Rick Barnes, I have no idea -- maybe he hasn't qualified yet years-wise, I'm not sure -- but I have no idea why he hasn't been bandied about as being a Naismith Hall of Famer, I have no idea. Because he's that good, and he's been that good everywhere.

They have a tremendous team. They have an older team. They have a fast team that's good in the backcourt. They've got a strong and really athletic team that's good up front, and our guys went toe to toe and battled them.

I think at the end of the day they just need a few more shots. We missed a couple of layups. There were a couple of swings. Christian's missed layup, and he was so open, probably more open than he thought he'd be. So we miss a layup and give up a three on the other end, that's a five-point swing. Those things are tough.

There's segments of the game that you can look back at that really at the end they just made a couple more plays, a couple more shots than we did. Jaxon's three goes down off Aaron's steal, and it's bedlam, but that didn't happen.

So I'm proud of their fight. I really appreciate the way the fans were here. I appreciate the way they've been here all year, the way they stuck with them. And our guys believed, and we just came up short. But it certainly wasn't from flinching, it certainly wasn't from lack of belief, and it certainly wasn't from not wanting it.

This team prepares and practices their butts off. So the way they played tonight is indicative of the way they train. So go ahead.

Q. Coach, it's pretty apparent the way your team's playing. I guess I would just ask, I mean, you've obviously coached a lot of ball, Marquette and Indiana before Georgia. Dane Bradshaw commented during the game, looking at your team's record, looking at the deficit, Oquendo getting laid out in front of the bench from a loose ball when you're down 13, where is that emanating from? Where does that come from? Most teams 1-13 or whatever, you're not seeing them diving for balls late in second halves when they're down double digits.

TOM CREAN: I think the bottom line is I never walk in here coaching like a 1-13, and I don't prepare that way. I left here Saturday night maybe 11:00, 11:30 after a noon game, just digging in anything we could find for Tennessee. I think what these players do is they respond to that. They respond to game planning. They respond to the work.

There's an inner pride, which we're preaching all the time, that control what you can control, and you can absolutely control your effort. You can absolutely control -- you can't necessarily make the shot go in or make the shot not go in on the other end, but you really can control your execution. And you can control how hard you fight, how tough you are. And that's what we're building day after day.

I wouldn't tolerate it any other way because I certainly wouldn't tolerate it from me, so I certainly wouldn't tolerate it from anyone else because that's not how you grow in life. How you grow in life is you take a look at adversity, and either it softens you up or it hardens you up. There's no middle ground. We've just got to continue to do that, and that's what I expect them to continue to do. That's all I do, and that's all I've ever done, and that's all I will ever do.

So having a group of people that will continue to bring it -- it's not easy. I'm not saying it's easy, and I'm not saying we always have a belief because it's very, very hard. They're young kids that really want to win. I mean, they really, really want to win. There would be a huge difference if they were accepting losing, and they're not. They're not. I sure as heck am not, and they are. I'm really proud of the way that they fight and get better every day.

Q. Tom, what was Kario dealing with when he tumbled hustling for that ball near the bench?

TOM CREAN: I'm not sure. He wasn't out very long. I don't know if it was the stomach, got the air knocked out of him. I didn't get a read. I was going to give him a blow quickly anyways. He played his tail off. He really did. He's getting so much better. He's blowing up in front of everybody's eyes. I mean, he really is. We have a lot of guys getting better in here, but he's really, really elevating his game.

He played a really long stretch at the beginning. Christian played a long stretch at the beginning. Probably longer than we would have wanted, but it is what it is. Kario, I think, responded pretty well.

Q. I think it was like the seventh or so minute on, so like the three minute or so when you all were making your run. Braelen wasn't in the game much at that time. Was he okay?

TOM CREAN: Yeah, sure. We practiced to have small lineups. So when they're as big as they are -- and he was in at crucial times. But when they're as big as they are, and we don't have a format. We do not have one. They're over there helping coach my team, P.J. and Jailyn. So we don't have that.

With that being said, we've got to try to find a way to steal possessions. So when we can put five shooters on the floor, five people that they have to guard and they've got two bigger guys in, we have to look to do that. And we did that more tonight.

A little bit of it was just that, but Braelen didn't do anything wrong. He played fantastic.

Q. Coach, you got it to four right there with about six minutes left. It looked like you had it going pretty good. Where would you say it kind of got away from you in those next couple of minutes?

TOM CREAN: We just missed a couple of shots. Again, Aaron gets the steal, if Jaxon makes that three, it's a three-point game, I believe, am I correct?

Q. Yes.

TOM CREAN: I don't have the book here. Well, there's a book here, but I haven't looked at it. I think we just missed a couple of shots and they made it. It's basically just that simple.

We continued to move the ball. We continued to run our actions. But they just made a couple more plays. And then we had to foul. We knew who we wanted to foul, but then we had to foul to extend the game. So I think that's really all it was. I would have liked one more minute in this game. I really would have.

Q. If I can follow quickly with Braelen, he finished 6 of 7 in this game. He had four or five, I think, in the first half. Do you need to run more stuff through him maybe? Does he need to touch it more?

TOM CREAN: We run a ton through him. We really do. We run a ton through him. Remember, just because he's not scoring doesn't mean he's not facilitating. Outside of high pick-and-roll, pretty much most everything is going through him at some point, whether it's in high post.

He's a playmaker. Playmakers don't always score a lot of points. Now when you put him in the post and he can score down on the post, that's one thing, but we also have to get those bigger guys out of the post because they're a big team. And that's important. But I thought he did a really good job. We finished within a couple of points of beating a tremendous team. So I'm not going to split hairs on those things.

I get exactly what you're asking. He does a lot more than might meet the eye because of the way he facilitates so much offense. Does that make sense?

Q. Coach, I know in a close game you said you were playing with five guards --

TOM CREAN: I didn't say we were playing with five guards, did I?

Q. I thought you did.

TOM CREAN: Yeah, we don't have five guards. I was playing a smaller lineup. Maybe I did. I misspoke. We don't have five guards on the roster. Smaller lineup.

Q. With a smaller lineup on the floor, yes, sir. Sorry about that. I know with the experience with Josh Taylor when you all were getting rebounded, why didn't you all go to him somewhat in the second half? What's been the deal with Cam McDowell the past few games? We haven't seen him in there?

TOM CREAN: I played the guys that I played. The other guys are doing well. I played the guys that we played. So that's really what I did. We have other guys available, but I went with other guys that were in there.

So rebounding ended up, the second chance points ended up we actually scored one more point than they did second chance, and we were definitely concerned about the rebounding tonight.

It really came down to just a couple possessions into the last minute, minute and a half of the game. So I'm not sure lineup was any part of the issue.

Q. Tom, in that first half especially, you guys did a good job defensively. I think they only shot 39 percent, had like seven turnovers. What did you feel like, especially in that first half, was really working defensively?

TOM CREAN: I think we had three -- I think we had nine straight stops at one point, I think. I think I heard that on the bench. To me, we were limiting them to one shot. We weren't getting beat off the dribble. We were challenging shots. And we were letting our defense set the action, right? Set the attack. And they were able to get out and run with that.

But I think the most important thing against a team like Tennessee -- with Arkansas we played too fast. They want to play really fast, and we played really fast with them. I think it caught us in the second half some because we don't have the depth that some of these teams have. So we wanted to make sure that, if we weren't scoring quick, that we were running offense with them. But to do that, you've got to get stops. So if we got stops, get up on the break. If not, let's make them work. But I thought our defense did a lot of really good things tonight.