ATLANTA- Georgia Tech men's basketball coach Damon Stoudamire and his team will head up to Milwaukee this weekend to face Northwestern in Fiserv Forum home of the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday afternoon.
Stoudamire is excited to his team back on the road in an NBA arena after a great experience last year in Madison Square Garden when the Jackets knocked off Penn State in overtime.
"It is a good experience on both fronts," Stoudamire said. "Being able to play Northwestern this year just like we played Penn State last year in Madison Square Garde, I actually shared one of my greatest moments as a player and then as an assistant coach for Boston came in Milwaukee. As a coach, we were down 3-2 backing in 2022 and (Jayson) Tatum goes in there and goes for 40 and we took them to gave seven and went back to Boston and closed them out so that was a great moment."
The Jackets have navigated injuries to two starters over the last two weeks with Javian McCollum sidelined with a lingering concussion from the Cincinnati game and Kowacie Reeves battling a foot injury during a tough stretch against ranked teams on the road in Oklahoma and North Carolina. Stoudamire says he feels like his team is heading in the right direction after playing both of those teams close shorthanded.
"The most important thing for me and even talking to them is that we are going in the right direction," he said. "Most people win or lose, and don't get me wrong there is a left-hand and right-hand column, but I think in our case, we either win or we learn and we just got to keep learning and don't allow built-in excuses and we are right there in games, but there are a couple of things we've got to clean up and that is the excitement I have going into this game Sunday."
On McCollum's status, Stoudamire borrowed a term from Tech football coach Brent Key and said he is hopeful his senior guard and top-scorer will be back.
"I'm hoping he will be back for this game," he said. "Anybody who knows me knows you don't need practice, you just got to get in there and play. So having that extra body would be good and we've missed him, missed his shooting, and missed his veteran presence. Having Javian back for Sunday would be great news for the team."
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Stoudamire said that the team still has to learn the value of each possession and that was big late in the UNC game as they squandered some opportunities throughout the game and it cost them late.
Stoudamire said the defense has been improving and they played really well at UNC, Elliot Cadeau hit a tough three that was well-defended late to win the game for the Heels, but they are playing well and it will payback in wins if they keep playing hard on D.
Stoudamire said this week they've worked a lot on scripted situations for late game and then done a lot of indy work and detail-focused practices.
Stoudamire said that Darrion Sutton will likely be ready to go on Sunday coming off a hamstring injury, but his role is TBD, he is hoping there are no setbacks between now and then.
Stoudamire expects a physical game from a veteran team in Northwestern.
On Jaeden Mustaf, Stoudamire said he has to learn that he can't run guys over and at his size he has to take what the D gives him and that could be a pull-up jumper and he needs to hit those and that is what better guards will do. He said he is big on analytics and there are a lot of very successful guards that are good in the mid-range game and in the paint with short shots and Mustaf needs to play like that. He said he loved Mark Price and he was 75-80% on pull-ups and he wants Jaeden to master that shot.
Stoudamire is excited to his team back on the road in an NBA arena after a great experience last year in Madison Square Garden when the Jackets knocked off Penn State in overtime.
"It is a good experience on both fronts," Stoudamire said. "Being able to play Northwestern this year just like we played Penn State last year in Madison Square Garde, I actually shared one of my greatest moments as a player and then as an assistant coach for Boston came in Milwaukee. As a coach, we were down 3-2 backing in 2022 and (Jayson) Tatum goes in there and goes for 40 and we took them to gave seven and went back to Boston and closed them out so that was a great moment."
The Jackets have navigated injuries to two starters over the last two weeks with Javian McCollum sidelined with a lingering concussion from the Cincinnati game and Kowacie Reeves battling a foot injury during a tough stretch against ranked teams on the road in Oklahoma and North Carolina. Stoudamire says he feels like his team is heading in the right direction after playing both of those teams close shorthanded.
"The most important thing for me and even talking to them is that we are going in the right direction," he said. "Most people win or lose, and don't get me wrong there is a left-hand and right-hand column, but I think in our case, we either win or we learn and we just got to keep learning and don't allow built-in excuses and we are right there in games, but there are a couple of things we've got to clean up and that is the excitement I have going into this game Sunday."
On McCollum's status, Stoudamire borrowed a term from Tech football coach Brent Key and said he is hopeful his senior guard and top-scorer will be back.
"I'm hoping he will be back for this game," he said. "Anybody who knows me knows you don't need practice, you just got to get in there and play. So having that extra body would be good and we've missed him, missed his shooting, and missed his veteran presence. Having Javian back for Sunday would be great news for the team."
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Stoudamire said that the team still has to learn the value of each possession and that was big late in the UNC game as they squandered some opportunities throughout the game and it cost them late.
Stoudamire said the defense has been improving and they played really well at UNC, Elliot Cadeau hit a tough three that was well-defended late to win the game for the Heels, but they are playing well and it will payback in wins if they keep playing hard on D.
Stoudamire said this week they've worked a lot on scripted situations for late game and then done a lot of indy work and detail-focused practices.
Stoudamire said that Darrion Sutton will likely be ready to go on Sunday coming off a hamstring injury, but his role is TBD, he is hoping there are no setbacks between now and then.
Stoudamire expects a physical game from a veteran team in Northwestern.
On Jaeden Mustaf, Stoudamire said he has to learn that he can't run guys over and at his size he has to take what the D gives him and that could be a pull-up jumper and he needs to hit those and that is what better guards will do. He said he is big on analytics and there are a lot of very successful guards that are good in the mid-range game and in the paint with short shots and Mustaf needs to play like that. He said he loved Mark Price and he was 75-80% on pull-ups and he wants Jaeden to master that shot.
