George Washington University Athletics
GW/Harvard Post-Game Quotes
12/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 13, 2008
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
December 13, 2008
GW 78
Harvard 63
Post-Game Quotes
GW Coach Karl Hobbs
You went 19-for-23 from the free-throw line today. Are you happy about that?
"I'm ecstatic. This has been a struggle. But our terrific free-throw shooters haven't been getting a lot of reps. As the season wears on, they'll start making them. But we got off to a bad start from the free-throw line. It's really encouraging to see us knocking them down today. Being at home helped too."
Did you make an adjustmet to guard against their 3-point shooting?
"We talked about it at halftime and throughout the game. When you're taking a lot of threes, and we're playing full-court defense, I'd like to think that they started to get tired. As you go along in the game, you're not as sharp and start leaving them short. Our defense tightened up and we gave them a little more focus on their threes. But we caught a bit of a break because their best inside player [Keith Wright] didn't play today. That would have really spread us out because you have to pay a lot of attention to him."
You gave Joseph Katuka a lot of playing time tonight. Is that from what you're seeing in practice?
"Absolutely. He has worked so hard in practice; I felt bad that I couldn't play him in the Maryland game. When a guy is giving that much effort, and he's getting better--he's still not quite there. But I told him no matter what happens today...I was committed to making sure I played him today."
On the play of Rob Diggs:
"He had some moments when he really turned it up. I think for him, he's getting off to a slow start. Hopefully in these next few games, he'll pick up his intensity, his rhythm will come up, and we'll be able to get the ball to him a little bit more. He got terrific numbers of the amount of minutes he played."
Junior forward Damian Hollis
What's made the difference in your play the last few games?
"Ive just been getting in the gym and focusing on what coach wants me to do--to take advantage of the plays they run for me. I've been practicing that a lot, and you can see that it started to work today."
Was there a point in the game or a certain basket that really got you going?
"Not really. I was more concerned about our defense. The scoring just happened. I just couldn't figure out why we couldn't pull away from them for so long. We'd score and they'd still be just a few points behind us.
Were you surprised Harvard scored so many threes early on?
"It was a surprise to me. They moved the ball so much and waited until we relaxed and hit an open three near the end of the shot clock."
Is it difficult to play against that kind of deliberate offense?
"It's not difficult. We just have to learn how to concentrate and focus for those 34-35 seconds, and then just box out, and make sure they don't get any cheap offensive rebounds."
Harvard Coach Tommy Amaker
Opening statement
"I thought we played a tremendous first 20 minutes. The difference was the start of the second half. They've traditionally been, from what we've seen on tape, a much more aggressive second half team. We found that out firsthand. They turned it up, and we turned it over...and they made a pretty sizable run to start the second half, which really knocked us on our heels. That was disappointing to us because we were trying to control tempo. They are very long and athletic, and coming off their previous game against Maryland, we knew they were going to be ready to play. I'm just disappointed that we didn't handle the ball a little bit better against their pressure."
Jeremy Lin had a difficult day against GW's defense.
"He's been our best player and best scorer. Things were tough and tight for him, and that kind of spilled over on to our team. We get a lot of confidence from Jeremy...if he's not playing fairly well, it's going to be challenging for us given where we are right now being shorthanded....He had good shots; he missed some threes that he would ordinarily make. We expect that he'll make those shots in the future."
You cut GW's 21-point lead to eight; will your young team take away something good from that?
"There's no question we will. We'll find some good things to use from this game. And the effort we used to come back in this game, to fight and claw, I'm very pleased with that. I'm equally displeased that we put ourselves in that position, but certainly our kids dug in and made some stops, and got some energy going."
On the play of GW's Damian Hollis:
"There's no question he played a tremendous game...I thought he was the difference. I thought we played fairly well and fairly hard, but his offensive production was the difference for them, especially in the first half."
Did you deliberately use all of the shot clock much of the game?
"In the first half, we were deliberately trying to control the tempo of the game; that was by design for us--to move the ball, to use time, and if we saw a breakdown, to take advantage of it. We really wanted to see if we could shorten the game. For a while it worked; we were productive and we were within striking distance. But the start of the second half is when the game got away from us."
