ATLANTA- Georgia Tech men's basketball coach Damon Stoudamire and his point guard Naithan George spoke to the media on Monday as the Jackets began preparations for the ACC Tournament opener against Virginia.
Coming off one of the worst offensive performances of the season at Wake Forest in the regular season finale, Stoudamire said he is focused on getting his team's confidence level back up.
The Jackets faced Virginia last month on Tony Bennett Appreciation Night with an injured Lance Terry unable to shoot the ball physically and without guard Jaeden Mustaf leaving the Jackets severely outgunned against the Cavs.
"We've got to go into here feeling good about ourselves and confident," Stoudamire said. "I think that is the biggest thing and I think getting off to a start start is going to be important. They are a totally different team playing from behind, so that is all I am concerned about."
Stoudamire told the story of riding an 18-game winning streak at Arizona into the NCAAT and losing in the first round in 1993 when they lost to Santa Clara so he said feeling good about yourself is still really important. He said that anything can happen especially when the team isn't feeling good because ideally you want to play well several nights in a row to get yourself on a run.
I asked about the trend of bounce back games after the crappy shooting performances and he said that has been their track record this year and they'd like to eliminate those bad games but they've been pretty resilient as a group.
On the improvement of Ibrahim Souare, he has made a lot of strides and will only get better. He views him as a long-term program guy and five years later from when he signed he will be bigger and stronger and contributing to victories at GT. He said this year has been important to him building up his confidence.
I asked about facing Coach Sanchez who is likely going to need to win the ACCT to keep his job and he said he is focused on GT and the strides they are making and he is excited they are in a position to have a bye in the NCAAT.
Stoudamire said that this run that led to them earning a bye started with hard work in practice and then them playing well over the last month and building a collective confidence in what they are doing and now they have a chance to extend the season on Wednesday and try to make a run.
On Baye Ndongo's play the last month, he said he didn't feel like Baye played well against Wake and he still had a double-double so that shows how consistent he is playing.
George said he feels like this is a chance to get even with UVA after playing them with Lance Terry unable to shoot and with Mustaf out. Nait said they have to really work on shutting down Isaac McKneely who got UVA going last time and they have to close out on their shooters better than they did the last time.
Nait said the bad game against Wake is definitely a motivating factor in this game because they want to bounce back and they've got to stay connected and play better overall.
Coming off one of the worst offensive performances of the season at Wake Forest in the regular season finale, Stoudamire said he is focused on getting his team's confidence level back up.
The Jackets faced Virginia last month on Tony Bennett Appreciation Night with an injured Lance Terry unable to shoot the ball physically and without guard Jaeden Mustaf leaving the Jackets severely outgunned against the Cavs.
"We've got to go into here feeling good about ourselves and confident," Stoudamire said. "I think that is the biggest thing and I think getting off to a start start is going to be important. They are a totally different team playing from behind, so that is all I am concerned about."
Stoudamire told the story of riding an 18-game winning streak at Arizona into the NCAAT and losing in the first round in 1993 when they lost to Santa Clara so he said feeling good about yourself is still really important. He said that anything can happen especially when the team isn't feeling good because ideally you want to play well several nights in a row to get yourself on a run.
I asked about the trend of bounce back games after the crappy shooting performances and he said that has been their track record this year and they'd like to eliminate those bad games but they've been pretty resilient as a group.
On the improvement of Ibrahim Souare, he has made a lot of strides and will only get better. He views him as a long-term program guy and five years later from when he signed he will be bigger and stronger and contributing to victories at GT. He said this year has been important to him building up his confidence.
I asked about facing Coach Sanchez who is likely going to need to win the ACCT to keep his job and he said he is focused on GT and the strides they are making and he is excited they are in a position to have a bye in the NCAAT.
Stoudamire said that this run that led to them earning a bye started with hard work in practice and then them playing well over the last month and building a collective confidence in what they are doing and now they have a chance to extend the season on Wednesday and try to make a run.
On Baye Ndongo's play the last month, he said he didn't feel like Baye played well against Wake and he still had a double-double so that shows how consistent he is playing.
George said he feels like this is a chance to get even with UVA after playing them with Lance Terry unable to shoot and with Mustaf out. Nait said they have to really work on shutting down Isaac McKneely who got UVA going last time and they have to close out on their shooters better than they did the last time.
Nait said the bad game against Wake is definitely a motivating factor in this game because they want to bounce back and they've got to stay connected and play better overall.
