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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2019Mark SimonsChanin ScottGreensboro, North Carolina North Carolina - 80, Georgia Tech - 73 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Georgia Tech. To my left is Coach Mark Simons and Chanin Scott. And, Coach, just a brief review of the game and an opening statement and we'll go to questions. COACH SIMONS: I thought our kids competed. I think we got great play off the bench. We had kids come in, played great minutes for us. And I think it hurt us that Elizabeth got in early foul trouble and we had to limit her minutes in the first half. And then she wasn't herself when she came back. But I thought that for the most part they hurt us with second shots. And then Paris Kea is a heck of a player and she took over the game in the second half. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Coach, how big of a difference maker do you think the turnover margin was today? UNC only turned it over five times. I think your team was forcing it 18 times a game in ACC play. COACH SIMONS: They did a great job. They kept the ball in Kea's hands. We tried to keep it out of her hands as best we could. We tried pressing them before, and that's how we that's how we generate offense sometimes and generate energy. But we knew that when we played them the first time that they pretty much shredded our press and got open looks from 3. So we had to limit our pressing a little bit. We tried to do more trapping in the quarter court. But, yeah, the turnover difference was, I think, they had -- what did they have off turnovers? They had 15 points off turnovers to our six. Usually we're at least in double digits. Q. Coach, can you talk just a little bit about this last few weeks has probably been tough in terms of keeping your team's focus and playing. They played very well today. But can you just talk about what that's been like, you know, going through that with them? COACH SIMONS: We just talked about that again. These kids were really resilient. Okay? They binded together and as you saw today, I mean, they really competed. Some kids had to play that hadn't ordinarily played and increased their minutes and so on, and I thought these kids stay focused. They really did. Our practices have been good. I think Chanin can attest to that. This is a great group of kids. This is really a great group of kids, and they did an awesome job of staying the course, blinders on, let's go forward, let's slide in the back door of the NCAA Tournament somehow. And we lost some tough games. We really did. We lost some tough games. But these kids remained together. They remained together. Q. How has it been for you sliding back over into the head-coaching seat? COACH SIMONS: Bob and I have known each other for a very long time. And I want to say this as an aside because I know -- I think my kids actually tried to or may have contacted the newspaper after all that what went down many years ago because of your support. And it wasn't an easy transition. A year ago I was fishing, and I mean really fishing, not fishing for a job. And this opportunity came up -- I was doing some consulting -- and this came up. And I decided, what the heck? I have to be honest with you, it took me a minute. It took me a minute to move over to the chair because I was used to being the other one, you know? But I will tell you that from that very first time that we had our first practice, that Wednesday morning, these kids had my back. And I told them that I really appreciated that. I have one more thing, please. This is kind of leading into what you said, Bob, and that is I'm up here today because Machelle Joseph asked me to remain and coach the team. That was her decision. This is her team. She was the leader of this team; not me. I just drove the bus. And I had to move, like you said, move up a couple seats. She put this team together. She recruited this team. Those two kids that were on the all-freshmen team, one being freshman of the year, those were her kids. Those two kids on the All-Academic, All-ACC team, those are her kids. She's my friend. She's my boss and the reason I came to Tech. That's all I have to say. Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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