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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2018Josh PastnerBen LammersTadric JacksonNew York, New York Boston College - 87, Georgia Tech - 77. JOSH PASTNER: Okay, give Boston College credit. You know, they made some plays, and we just unfortunately just didn't shoot the ball well enough, missed some key free throws. We had four turnovers the first half, and we took care of the ball, but we had some chances where we could just -- couldn't get over the hump. Missed a couple front ends of one-on-ones and had a couple rim out on us. We did a good job guarding the three against Boston College, but we didn't make our shots. And then nine turnovers the second half. We made a great run late. That's kind of like the microcosm of our team this entire year where they just have fought and competed, and every step of the way, every second of the way, we've dug ourselves into holes, and we find ourselves to keep competing and fighting and never giving up. That's who we've been all year long, it's just we've been one of those teams that we dig ourselves into a hole, and then when we get ourselves into a hole, we fight our way out of it, we just don't -- the hole is sometimes a little bit too deep. I'm proud of these two young men to my left here in Ben Lammers and Tadric Jackson, who great seniors who have given everything that they've had to Georgia Tech. Ben Lammers is a mechanical engineer, and Tadric Jackson is going to graduate with business in the spring. Both are going to have great careers both on and off the floor moving forward. We've got a really good nucleus coming back. They've got great time and experience, especially with all the injuries, it's allowed some guys to really get playing time and experience for them that maybe they would not have gotten, and we have a good recruiting class coming in. We're excited for the long-term and especially for the off-season, summer and the fall. Q. Coach, can you talk about the fifth foul and also it seemed like you had all the momentum in the game and had a chance to really cut it down there. JOSH PASTNER: Yeah, I mean, look, I think the ACC officials are the best in the country. They do a great job, and I think Brian Kersey and his whole entire crew is excellent. Of course there's going to be times throughout the way you're going to disagree with a call here and there, but in the end, you know, I think the officiating in the ACC for the entire year has been excellent, and I've said that many times before. That's a credit to the league and the conference. Yeah, there's going to be times we disagree with a call, but in the end, we just dug ourselves in a little bit too deep of a hole. Q. Ben, Boston College talked about how you were the focus of their defense basically in preparation; could you feel the difficulty of getting to a spot and sort of being pushed out on the coverage? BEN LAMMERS: I mean, I could kind of tell that they were trying to focus on me or at least like trying to bump me out when they could, but since like five or six games ago, we made a lot of effort focusing on like me getting in the right position, especially on our offense where I'm at the high post. I noticed it a little bit, but it didn't really affect me too much. Q. Josh, can you talk a little bit about Okogie's struggles today? Seemed like he was just off all around on defense and on offense. JOSH PASTNER: Yeah, unfortunately he was really good last week defensively. He was really good, and then today he just wasn't really good either side of the ball. You know, he's just had a tough game today, and because of our lack of depth, and I've said this, in the part of the rebuild, we've got to get old and stay old and get to a point where we've got about eight surefire upper tier ACC type of guys. When you have a guy who's off and/or injured, next man up is upper tier ACC level. And that's just part of the plan of through recruiting we've got to get it done. So a guy like today where Josh struggled because of our lack of depth at that spot, it just made it tough, and you're going to roll with him, and he just never could get out of kind of that funk he was in. Look, he was third-team all league, he's had a great sophomore campaign. I said before he played a game here, I said he was going to be an all league guy by his junior year, so he's moved it up a year. He's going to be a key focal point for us to do what we need to do next year and he's going to be an important part of that obviously and I think he'll be a great leader for us and continue to improve. Q. I'm curious about Ben. In the first half, did you feel like there was more you could have done to get him the ball? JOSH PASTNER: Well, we were talking about it in the time-outs, and we wanted to get Ben the ball more. He got to the free-throw line. They did foul him, and he got to the line 12 times. But part of it, Josh had some good looks, Tadric had a couple really good looks, and then we swung the ball to Moses a couple times and he had some great looks, we just missed some shots and they stayed clamped down and tight on Ben. It's a shooter's game. You've got to make some shots. The more shots you make, it's going to open some things, and we've got to get shooting through recruiting to be able to shoot the ball. I mean, that's such a big part for us, especially the way we play offensively with some of the cutting that we do and our spacing. Last year we weren't a good three-point shooting team, and this year we haven't been. So we've got to increase that through recruiting, recruiting guys who can really fill it up from the three. Q. Tadric, after today and overall, how did you feel about the way the season panned out for you guys? I know injuries were a struggle. TADRIC JACKSON: I mean, of course you're going to be down. It's not where we wanted to be. To lose the first round, and could have had a chance to win, it just hurt, just deep down. To sit here and say it'll be all right, but it's not, but at the end of the day, you've got to just keep moving on with life and just keep getting better. Q. Tadric, it seemed like you kind of willed the team back into the game there in that late stretch. Was there something -- was that just kind of the mentality this could be your last game and you wanted to kind of spark them to do something? TADRIC JACKSON: No, it just started from getting stops. Once we started getting turnovers. It wasn't all me. It was definitely a team effort. Getting deflections and stops and turnovers there just gave us a better chance to run the break and get a score. Q. Josh, did you give any thought, particularly with the way Moses was struggling to getting Abdoulaye in the game earlier? JOSH PASTNER: Yeah, you know, Moses had six boards the first half. And Moses is going to be really good for us, as is Evan, and as is A.D. A.D. got great experience this year and it's going to bode well for him next year. But I wanted to kind of see if Moses could get out of it because he was rebounding, he was guarding, it was just the offensive issue. And I felt with A.D. in there, shooting-wise he's not much better than Moses, and so -- but I felt the experience and the way Moses was going on the glass, as in terms of him playing hard, and I thought that was a good sign for him and us, and hopefully this experience will pay dividends for us and for him next season. Q. How much has not having a point guard affected your ability to play A.D. and Ben together? It seems like that's kind of why -- JOSH PASTNER: It's a recipe for disaster to play in the ACC without a point guard. The good news is we've got José coming back after his injury. We signed a kid Michael Devoe. So we'll have two on the roster. We'll end up maybe even -- you can always slide Josh as a third option at the point spot and then possibly we'll see what we can sign in the spring if there's a need on that. But recipe for disaster to play in the ACC without a true point. But that's what happened when Jose went down versus Duke. It was kind of like our eighth team during one season trying to adjust with the guys. But they've adjusted, and Tadric has done a nice job over the last few weeks running the point. I know that's not his natural position, but he's taken a load of it and has handled it well, and we won two great games last week, and part of that was the way Tadric ran the point. Q. For Ben and Tadric, can you talk about this being your last game at Georgia Tech, kind of what your emotions are like right now? BEN LAMMERS: Obviously it's very sad knowing that this is the last game I'll be able to play for Georgia Tech. I've had a great time playing for the school. They've been nothing but amazing to both of us. I wish I could maybe have a few more years to represent Georgia Tech. TADRIC JACKSON: Yeah, just going to piggy back on what Ben said. Any seniors don't want to end off with a game like this on their first day, and obviously you want to keep winning and stay out here on the road and try to extend it as long as you can. But it's just a -- we've both just got to move on to our careers. And I just want to thank the coaching staff and all the players and the organization and Georgia Tech for me having this opportunity. Q. The start of the second half, you had some stops, and it seemed like they were kind of opening a door for you but you weren't able to walk through. JOSH PASTNER: Yeah, we got stops. We were guarded, and we just couldn't score. We had some good looks -- we had some great looks and just couldn't make some shots there and had some opportunities we just didn't take advantage of. You know, it's been one of those years where the ball just hasn't bounced our way. In that type of segment there when that door was open, we just didn't take advantage of it and score the ball there, but we did get some stops and just didn't make it happen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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