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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: MILWAUKEE

March 21, 2010

Gani Lawal

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

Ohio State Â– 75
Georgia Tech - 66

DENNIS KRAUSE: We're joined by Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt. We'll start with an opening statement, and then go to questions for student-athletes Gani Lawal and D'Andre Bell.
COACH HEWITT: Somebody asked me about what it's like being in a tournament. And the thing that I responded was that it happens really fast. Things happen in this tournament really fast. Obviously we were grateful for the opportunity that the committee gave us inviting us to the tournament last Sunday.
I thought our guys played pretty hard, really well. And it moves fast one way or the other. You're either out real quick or all of a sudden you're in a position where you can see some really big goals for your team in front of you.
But overall, again, pleased for our guys that we were invited. These guys did a great job all season, battling back from really tough circumstances and got beat by a very good Ohio State team today who played really well in some key stretches.
DENNIS KRAUSE: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Gani, how tough was it for you guys, with you and Derrick and two others in foul trouble for much of the first half, and how did that affect you, especially at the start of the second half?
GANI LAWAL: It was really tough. Took us out of our rhythm.

Q. I sensed frustration for Gani going into the foul trouble. I know going into today you wanted to keep it down low, get it to the two big guys, you and also Favors. The game didn't go the way you wanted it to go, but what did you want to continue to do getting back into the game, even though you were in foul trouble at some point?
GANI LAWAL: We were in foul trouble. We wanted to take our time on offense and run our sets. We could have done a better job of that. That was our focus on the offensive end.

Q. D'Andre, you all have said all year you felt like this team had a very high ceiling. Do you feel like you got to where you could have gotten?
D'ANDRE BELL: We were just inconsistent. Certain points we showed how great we can be. And that's that.

Q. D'Andre, going into the game, you wanted to focus on the guard play. Obviously Evan Turner had his times and tried to stop him, but chasing the guards around, hitting them 3s, what was so tough about trying to chase these guys coming off the pick, especially for the big men like Dallas?
D'ANDRE BELL: That wasn't the difficulty. Any time they got wide open 3s, it was different breakdowns that we had. In particular, us pressing, from what I saw.

Q. D'Andre, you were able to force a lot of turnovers, Evan Turner had nine. But, on the other end, I guess it was a big issue at times this year. So you guys were losing a bit, too. Guys were putting on a lot of pressure. Did you feel they were forcing you into a lot of mistakes, or was it just silly things?
D'ANDRE BELL: What do you mean by "was it just silly things"?

Q. Did you miss on some passes, occasional things like that, or were they really forcing you guys into mistakes, do you think?
D'ANDRE BELL: I just feel we didn't take our time, so to speak, at certain times. We played some pretty good basketball. We just didn't take our time and actually continuously reversing the ball to get it inside and -- or just creating for one another by penetrating and dishing.
DENNIS KRAUSE: Thank you.
Questions for Coach Paul Hewitt.

Q. Paul, when you've got Gani and Derrick in foul trouble and two other guys, how much of a different team do you have than if those guys weren't in the foul trouble?
COACH HEWITT: We still came out of the first half in pretty good shape. They did a nice job in the second half of getting their transition game going.
One of the things we talked about over the last 24 hours is the fact that if Lighty, Turner, Buford, even Diebler, if they got the rebound they could be pretty dangerous in transition, because they could all push the ball in transition. I thought they had that little run there that second half based on somebody other than Turner starting the break. We're a better team with Gani and Derrick out there, but I didn't feel we played up to our potential. I thought we could have played a little better, especially with the lead.
We weren't nearly as aggressive as we wanted to be. Thought we were very tentative for some reason. We had the eight-point instead of continue to push the ball and attack. But we're a better team with them in there, but down 2 at the half with all the foul trouble, I felt like we were in pretty good shape.

Q. Can you kind of touch on what the players were asked earlier about the ceiling that this team could have had and how far you -- you won a lot of games. You got into the tournament, as you talked about earlier, and just kind of I guess touch on what could have happened and what did happen?
COACH HEWITT: You get into the tournament, obviously that's a really major accomplishment. The NCAA tournament is the NCAA tournament, like I said. They asked me last week what I thought about it. It happens really fast. You can move on quick. And obviously everybody saw Kansas lose in our bracket. So I'm sure that heightened the anticipation for this game because whoever came out of this game, now you're a couple games away from getting to the Final Four. I thought our guys played really hard. I thought we were very unlucky at points this year, lost some close games.
But they never stopped working. Never wavered with their effort and concentration. I thought our guys had a great year, had a very good year.

Q. Coach, your full-court press was very effective early on. And then they seemed to be able to handle it a little better as the game went on, especially in the second half to the point where you called it off. Was foul trouble part of the reason it became less effective? And was the point of pressing to begin with to try to wear them down because they're not a very deep team?
COACH HEWITT: That's part of it. The idea is to wear them down, but we saw what that pressure did for us turning the ball over. Evan Turner is a great player, probably player of the year, but he's had two or three games this year where he had at least ten turnovers. That was something we wanted to capitalize. I thought some of the fouls we committed in the first half were silly fouls. The ones we stayed away from the latter part of the season and certainly Friday night. But we got back into reach and grabbing and not contesting the shot at the top or at the rim.
And I thought that made us a little tentative in the second half. We weren't nearly as good. First half I thought early on we were really good. It was a shame we got -- they were in the bonus with 12 to go. We had to become really passive with the pressure and that probably allowed them to settle in.

Q. We talked about this Friday about the young team, how to be able to contribute to the success so far, but now with the loss going into off-season, you still have a young team. Pretty much in the perfect world, let's say everybody come back, some of the things you want to work with in the off-season for the team and the ACC.
COACH HEWITT: The way college basketball is, I heard Thad talking about it. We talked about it before the game, somebody is asking me about Thad and his team on the radio. I said you don't realize he's got five guys that are in the NBA or two in the D-League and three in the NBA that should be on this team. That's why college basketball is even more unpredictable now than it ever has been. You don't know what happens from year to year. Transfer is a way up, because everybody's trying to find their path to the NBA.
When guys have an opportunity to go, and some of them you can't blame them, they take the opportunity to go to the NBA. So it's exciting for the fans. It's nerve-racking for the coaches sometimes. But this is the -- this is the life we've chosen. This is the life we've chosen.
DENNIS KRAUSE: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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