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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 13, 2012Brian GregoryMIKE FINN: We're now joined by Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory. We'll go for a brief opening statement and then take questions. COACH GREGORY: We had this weekend off, which was good just in terms of getting back and doing some stuff for us to continue to improve. Two tough games this week, both on the road. Always difficult to be successful on the road. Just looking to continue to make the improvement that we need to make at this time of the year. We're 1‑1 in the second half of the ACC Conference season. We need to keep plugging along, keep moving forward so we can have some success. It's going to be difficult on the road. After two good days of practice today and tomorrow, hopefully we'll be ready to go on Wednesday. MIKE FINN: Questions for Coach Gregory. Q. It's obviously a rebuilding year; you're trying to establish some things. How difficult is it to maintain a positive attitude as the losses mount and things don't go well that you're able to keep them focused, learning and trying to improve? COACH GREGORY: Well, I think that's always the challenge when you're rebuilding. Rebuilding in and of itself signals that you're going to have to go through some tough times. What you hope is the guys understand that even though they're doing some things different, doing some things better, it doesn't happen overnight. You are where you're at in terms of who you have, the numbers you have and so forth. And then our margin of error is so small in terms of both offensively and defensively and personnel. You lose Nate Hicks who was playing pretty well, kind of establishing a role, had played very well in the first North Carolina State game. Now he's out three weeks. Daniel Miller now has to play 36 minutes, which is four minutes more than normal. But those are a big four minutes. Every little thing can kind of throw you off. You just need to have the guys stay focused on the day and at the task at hand. It takes some individual toughness to be able to keep grinding it out every day knowing that the payoff is going to be down the road as opposed to right now. And that's difficult, especially nowadays with the instant gratification society that we live in that makes it probably even more difficult. That's where you have to rely on the character of the guys. You just got to keep them positive by showing them ways they're improving. There's no question we're a much better team than we were in the beginning of the season or even in the beginning of the ACC. We played fairly well. We just need to continue to do that in longer stretches. Q. Can you point out an area where you think have shown improvement? COACH GREGORY: Well, I just think we're moving the ball better on offense, we're sharing the ball better. At times that becomes an Achilles' heel where when we don't do it, it puts us in a difficult situation. Our defense is much, much improved. Our halfcourt defense is pretty darn good. We're actually able to make up for some mistakes in the halfcourt defense with some guys that have blocked some shots. Daniel has done a good job of that. Whenever our defensive field goal percentages are higher than I would like, it's usually due to two reasons: one, turnovers, which leads to easy baskets by the opponent; or two, when you don't move the ball well on offense and we take quick shots, impatience on offense, that leads to transition baskets. There's no question, even with some of the games where we've had a high turnover rate or shot the ball poorly because of shot selection or decisions with the ball, even when you add those in, our defensive field goal percentage is much improved. We're doing a better job on the glass. But we're limited defensively at times. One of the biggest challenges is to get the guys to understand that with that you have to do a better job of working for good shots. That doesn't always mean taking more time. If you have a quality shot early, we need to take that, learning those nuances of the game, kind of understanding. We've had some close games. Probably three or four or maybe more games in the ACC with four minutes to go, it's a two‑possession game. Well, we need to get better at finishing out some of those games. We've only really done it once. Unfortunately that's not enough when it comes to this league. Q. You're going to be playing at Wake. They're in a similar situation. Is it a big difference from one year to two years in terms of putting your system in, getting what you want accomplished? COACH GREGORY: Well, I think you hope that the learning curve is moving in the right direction in year two. But then again, outside of their two big kids that are starting, they only have one upperclassman playing. You also have to look at the starting point. I think both us and Wake, very similar situation where they start, where we started. To be honest with you, not a great point to start from (laughter). The rebuilding and reestablishing two very proud programs is not going to happen overnight. Unfortunately, as has been proven around the country in other programs that were in a similar situation. Sometimes the success on the court is the last step. You got to get all those other things in place before maybe you have the breakout year where you reestablish the program in the upper echelon in the league, ranked nationally, different things like that, fighting for post‑season, not only playing in the post‑season, but advancing in the post‑season. Those are steps. I think the one thing in this league, you better make sure that you don't skip any of those steps. I think Jeff has done that. I think the blueprint is the same on that. You got to bring in your players, you got to get the guys that are still around to buy into what you're doing, and you got to find a good mesh between those two. That occurs during year two, three and four where you still got guys that were around when you got there that are meshing with the players that you have. You better make sure the foundation is solid so you're not taking steps backward as you're trying to move forward. MIKE FINN: Coach, thanks for being with us. We'll talk to you next Monday. Good luck this week. COACH GREGORY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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