If you’ve already read the game story in the previous post, here are some more quotes on Georgia Southern’s upset of the Hokies:

Jarell Eddie on GSU’s 3-point shooting: “They was just making a lot of tough shots. We was rotating and they would make the open shot. They made a couple tough shots. We gave them some offensive rebounds, second opportunities. ,,,,  We’ve just got to play better defense, and when they miss shots we’ve got to get the rebound. We’ve just got to play tighter defense.”

Eddie on the fact that WVU made 10 treys and GSU 11 vs. the Hokies: “It’s not our 3-point defense. We defend the 3-point line pretty well as a team. We had a couple teams get hot on us.”

Eddie on the Hokies settling for 3s for part of the 2nd half: “Just getting stagnant. They was making their run and I guess a couple of us wanted to get it all back in one play. We’ve just got to continue to stay patient and keep chipping away and execute our offense.”

Eddie on the bad 3-point shooting day for VT: “We had good shots, but the shots weren’t falling.”

Eddie on what the team must do better in the future: “We’ve just got to rebound…… The main thing right now is rebounding, holding teams to one shot.”

Erick Green on the loss: “We can’t let teams like this beat us. … We’ve got a lot to get better at. If we don’t get better, we’re going to keep taking Ls and I’m not going out like that my senior year.”x

Green on the pressure defense that got VT back in the game: “It was very difficult. I was a little tired.”

Green on GSU’s big 3-point outing: “They just  had a great night behind the arc, shooting the ball period. … I thought 2nd half they was going to cool off… but they did a good job.”

Green on whether VT needs to improve on the boards: “Oh yes, oh yes, yes, yes. That’s something we’ve got to all do, not just the bigs, even the guards. We’ve got to come back and help rebound. … We’ve got to pursue the ball. All five guys got to go get the ball.  … If we want to be a great team, we’ll work on this and get better at it. If not, we’ll be an average team and we’ll do like we did today and come up with some losses.”

James Johnson on the loss: “Tough loss tonight. … They came out on fire, making a lot of shots. The three guards made a lot of 3s and then when they did miss they got the offensive rebound and stuck it back. We didn’t have guys step up. Robert Brown didn’t play great, he’s battling the flu. … We’ve got to have a couple guys play a little better. … We’ve got to do a better job of rebounding the basketball. We’ve got to continue to get a post presence where we can throw the ball inside some. Defensively, we’ve got to do a better job of containing the ball and being there and contest the shot.”

Johnson on Green’s missed trey with 23 seconds left: “Green had a good look at it. Probably weren’t going to get a better shot than that.”

Johnson on Tech’s poor shooting:  “Just one of those nights. I was fearful that we would have one. We were shooting the basketball so well, just fearful that one of those nights was going to come at some point. When it happens yoJohhnu’ve got to be strong on the defensive end.”

Johnson on their good shooting: “A lot of the shots were contested.  They made shots.”

Johnson on VT’s pressure defense in the 2nd half: “We’ve got to pick our spots there. Eventually that’s the way we want to play but with our lineup and our bench we can’t do that the entire game, especially when you’ve got guys batting the flu and losiing weight. But they did a good job at it.”

Green said VT is relying too much on 3s, but Johnson said VT did not take too many 3s today: “Those are shots that have been going down for us all year. They were great looks. Eddie had great looks …. and they didn’t go down. Rankin had a look and Brown had a couple looks, those are shots those guys usually hit. … Can’t take those away at this point.”

Johnson on the rebounding woes: “Guys are just going to the glass on us. We have to be a better rebounding team. It has to be everybody. We don’t have a individual guy that can really just clean up the boards for us. It’s got to be 5 guys. We’ve got to have teh guards in there with 4 or 5 rebounds. We’ve got to rebound by committee.”

Johnson on Raines: “They take him out of the game with foul trouble …. Teams are actually going at him. They know he’s a key part of what we’re trying to do. They went at him the first 3 possessions of the game tonight. That’s something new for him. He’s not used to that. He’s young in his career as being a starting guy and having to be the focal point on the offensive end, and now teams are starting to go at him on the defensive end.”

(I’m starting to tire of this excuse about Raines. He started down the stretch last season and did rather well. So starting is no longer new to him. And he’s certainly not “the focal point on the offensive end.”

Johnson on Brown: “He’ll come on and start hitting shots. This last one, he hadn’t practiced much at all.”

GSU coach Charlton Young on their 3s: “Our philosophy offensively is to take inside-outside 3s. We feel like inside-outside 3s are a 65 percent shot. .. . We want to keep attacking the paint. We kept knocking them down not because we just got hot and threw them in but the kind of 3s that we were getting where they trapped the post and we had a guy standing and it was inside-outside. 19-9 is not a tough shot.”

Young, a former GT ast. coach, on VT: “They’re a very, very, very good basketball team. I think they’ve got 2 NBA players. I think the kid Erick Green is Nick Van Exel. … They’re going to be very good in the ACC. … They don’t have depth and I think if they get in foul trouble that could hurt them a little bit in the ACC but other than that they’re going to beat a lot of teams.”

Young on his team, which had the exact same starting five as  in its Dec. 1 loss to Samford: “We’ve had some chemistry issues on our team. We made some adjustments in terms of personnel. Guys have bought into their role. … We lost 2 key pieces, one to academics and one in the summer, basically 2 starters, so we’re a different team. We had two starters gone, we’ve got two reserves  that are now starters and we’ve got 2 guys that probably wouldn’t ahve been playing trying to get in the rotation. .. (CJ Reed) is going to play the game for money somewhere, he’s a big time point guard. Eric Ferguson is a legitimate NBA prospect, you saw a freshman named Cleon Roberts tonight that if he gets to 200 pounds he may be Kerry Kittles.”

Young on the SoCon: “I don’t want to be arrogant but we’re from the Southern Conference. We’re The Georgia Southern University. We’re not a MEAC or SWAC school. We play in the Southern Conference and the top 3 or 4 teams are high major teams.”

(Yes, but GSU is not Davidson or the College of Charleston. GSU was a 3-5 team with one DI win and losses to Elon, Valpo and Samford.)

Young on the difference between GSU today and GSU vs. Elon and Samford: “Our chemistry was poor (before). We had guys not happy with their role. Basketball is about chemistry … We’re a different team than we were 2 weeks ago. ….  We came together and we made the extra pass and I don’t think we took a bad shot. … We flowed offensively and we beat them on the glass, which we’re a poor rebounding team and we’ve been working on being a five-man box-out (team). … We’ve got a couple guys not with the program anymore. They decided to make a move. .. We’re buying in, we’re coming together.”