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ACC Quarterfinal - UVa Versus Georgia Tech Postgame Quotes
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March 9, 2001
Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt:
“Virginia played great… I told the guys in the lockerroom after thegame it’s going to be a long time before they realize what they didtoday. For this team, where we started last April, to be in thisposition, they’ve got to be proud of everything they’ve done so far.Brian Oliver, a former player here, came in and talked to the guysbefore the game. He reminded them who they’re playing for and how muchpride and tradition this program has.
“Again, they did an outstanding job. People keep asking me, ‘Why are yougood? What are you doing this year? What’s the magic formula?’ There’sno magic formula. We have a guy in the center who I think is the bestcenter in the ACC. People have suddenly discovered that he’s a goodoffensive player. He’s always been a great defensive player andrebounder.”
“We’re not thinking about (the NCAA Tournament). We’re still alive inthe ACC Tournament. As far as the conjecture, Are we in? Are we out? Wecan kind of take care of that on our own if we can get into Sunday, ifwe can play well tomorrow and we’re fortunate enough to win tomorrow,then we have a chance to take it out of everybody’s hands. So we’re justconcentrating on the ACC Tournament and playing against North Carolinatomorrow afternoon.”
Georgia Tech center Alvin Jones:
“I’m just glad we won tonight. I give a lot of credit to all myteammates. I think everybody had a big part in our win tonight. Wereally knew we needed to win tonight. We had something to prove toourselves and Coach Hewitt. We really worked hard in practice this weekand tried to get really prepared for the game. We did the things that weneeded to do. We played more intense than them. I don’t think we came upwith all the loose balls and rebounds but we stuck it out and found away to win.”
Georgia Tech guard Darryl LaBarrie:
“First of all, I want to give Virginia a lot praise for the way theycame out and played tonight. They came out and played real hard and madea lot shots that we thought were tough shots and shots that we wantedthem to take. But they made them tonight. I just thought it was a greatgame. Both teams played well. Both teams played hard. The big man(Jones) came through down the stretch and that’s why we won the game.”
Virginia head coach Pete Gillen:
“This is a very tough loss for our guys. We played very hard and it wasa microcosm of our other games this season against Georgia Tech. Again,it came down to the last couple of minutes, they just make enough playsto beat us.”
“In the first half, we were a little hesitant and unsure of ourselves,which caused us to be out of sync and only shoot 27%. I thought a bigpart of the loss, even though we were only down two, was the first half.But, we stepped up second half and made some plays, but we just couldn’tmake stops when we needed to.”
“Give them credit, we had three wars with them, they won three veryclose games, but give them credit, they are a very good team.”
Virginia guard Roger Mason, Jr.:
“It is very frustrating that we were unsuccessful against Georgia Techthree times this season. They are a great team, and Alvin Jones is a bigpresence for them on the inside. They got the best of us in every game,and that is definitely discouraging.”