Quotes From Clemson’s Win Over Georgia Tech

Feb. 2, 2000

Clemson Head Coach Larry Shyatt: “Except for the first three to four minutes of the game, I think our guys put together an excellent effort on defense, especially on the glass. And it wasn’t until probably the last three to four minutes that we started allowing shots to fall.

“Will (Solomon) didn’t get off to a particularly fast start on offense but was still able to put together a solid game. Juice (Jurkunas) stood up to the challenge and played a fabulous game against a pro (Collier). Braddick was equally impressive with his excellent defense.

“Our guards found the open players well, and we executed those shots.

“It was great to see our guys go out there and have fun.”

Georgia Tech Head Coach Bobby Cremins: “Our team played with a loss of confidence. Our team was really missing John Babul, the kids did not play well. We played without confidence and we played too tightly. In order to win basketball games we need to play loosely and with confidence. It is my responsibility to instill this in our players. Georgia Tech is a great school, our fans deserve to see better basketball than this. Our fans deserve wins.

“I have a great respect for Shyatt and Will Solomon. We lost a chance in the opening and allowed them to get ahead. The Tigers beat us on threes and on baskets. I don’t want to see us give up. We need to build up confidence with a win. John Babul gives us heart and fight. Our teams needs to get some of that fight and confidence back.”

“Anytime you play a game you have two possibilities, you can win or lose. And those possibilities are very real. We know that going into any game these possibilities are real. We had no misgivings at all about the capabilities of Clemson. We weren’t for one second unaware of their potential against us. Not withstanding that awareness we were incapable of over coming their defensive effort.”

Clemson’s Dustin Braddick “In the game plan Coach Shyatt stressed playing one against five instead of one against one. So every time they passed it in the post we tried to choke the ball out. That was part of the game plan to make them shoot more outside shots.

“We are finally getting most of our players back in practice and that helps. When we practice that just makes us better and it carries over into the games. We are happy, but we know we have to work to get better.”

Clemson’s Andrius Jurkunas “I played a little bit against him (Jason Collier) last year. I knew he could play on the outside, he can take you off the dribble, he is a good shooter, he is strong and big. So I was prepared for a physical game against him because I knew he was going to try to post me up. I was relying on my teammates to try and double-team him to make him kick the ball out. It worked out real good.

“I think we felt pretty good after the win against NC State. If you look at last year’s team with a lot of seniors we finished the first round 1-7. We are 2-6 now, so I don’t think we should feel sorry for ourselves. We definitely need to come out and play as hard as we can. Everybody is getting healthier for the second round.”