If you’ve already read my game story in the previous post or in the paper or elsewhere on the website, here are some extra quotes. There are none from Eric Green because he wasn’t available because of his condition, and there are none from Jarell Eddie because he was not made available to the media in the wake of his meltdown.

Robert Brown on the first half woes: “They hit shots and we kind of struggled. It’s a weird time game, 1 o’clock. I didn’t think everyone had their bodies. We did a different routine (pregame), I liked the routine and everyone else did. …. It stared off bad … but we’ve got guys on this team that didn’t stop fighting and we battled back.”

Brown on Green: “He played as hard as he could, he gave us everything he got and just ran out at the end.”

Brown on the offense other than Green: “We’re finding other people. Other people are getting good shots but people aren’t hitting shots, and even when they are hitting, defensively they’re doing a good job adjusting, finding people. Like Will Johnston hit a couple 3s and the rest of the game they kind of knew he was the shooter coming in and kind of stuck on him.”

Brown on VT digging itself a big hole: “We’ve done that a couple times this year and we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to climb out of a lot of them but this time we weren’t able to get over the hump.”

Brown on whether he feels the last place Hokies are the worst team in the ACC (which they are, but he is in denial so you won’t ever see this answer in one of my articles): “I think we’re better than a couple teams. We should’ve beat a couple good teams, like I think we should’ve pulled out Miami and Carolina. We just need more from more games and we just need to play batter at the end of the game. A lot of times we have the lead going into the second half, that’s when we really got to tighten up. The last 4 minutes, the last 8 minutes, we’ve got to play smarter. … We’re the same team that started off 7-0. We’re the same team, got the same players, same staff, we can turn it around. Hopefully we can start turn it around towards ACC tournament time and we can make a run there.”

Brown on the first half woes in terms of playing 2 games in 3 days, and contradicting his earllier comments: “We had our bodies, we had our legs under us. Coach didn’t really pound us too much in practice, knowing that we had a quick turnaround game. They just came out with a little more energy, a little more fire than us.”

Brown on how mad Johnson was after the game: “Colorado St. out in Vegas he was pretty mad there but this one wsa pretty bad.”

Brown on Eddie’s meltdown: “I know Jarell will be in the gym tonight probably about 3 o’clock. … He’ll get his game back, he’ll get his jump shot. I think he’s the best shooter in the ACC. We have confidence in him. … I know exactly how he feels, I’ve gone through a struggle and still going through it, not hitting shots, playing a little better.”

Brown on the offense: “A lot of times Erick goes on a little stretch by himself where you’ve just got to give him the ball and let him do what he does. Every game he’s been able to go out and get 20 plus. We’ve got to hit open shots… but when Erick’s going off like he was, you’ve got to find a way to give him the ball no matter what.”

Brown on his game: “Getting better but still need a lot of work. I still need to hit open shots. I hit a couple shots that I wasn’t hitting early in the year but I’ve still got to get better.”

Brown on the supporting cast: “We have the pieces to do it and we’re just not doing it. It’s frustrating personally that I’m not hitting shots and I know Jarell’s frustrated that he’s not hitting shots. Today Cadarian missed some shots but he had great looks, little bunnies. Coach said when he came in here that Cadarian was playing as hard as he can.”

Cadarian Raines on the offense: “We were just missing a lot of shots out there. When you miss shots I guess it’s hard to win. …. I was just missing shots.”

GT coach Brian Gregory on VT: “You miss a couple and now the open ones don’t seem so open. … We changed up some different things …… They just played at 9 o’clock on Thursday, too, so you’ve got to try to take advantage of that … It probably had something to do with it as well but we still needed to play well and I thought we did. We’re a much better team than when we played them (last month). We’re better defensively, we’re better offensively. Their zone really hurt us in the first game and they went to it in the first half to try to slow us down and I thought we executed really well against it. We knew what we wanted to do against it.”

Gregory on GT’s 2nd half: “We took some quick shots … but when you have 3 freshmen and sometimes 4 freshmen out there, sometimes that’s what happens. And with Mfuon in foul trouble, your senior point guard isn’t maybe out there to calm you down.”

Gregory on Green and the Hokies: “You have to stop them in transition. We got blasted in the 1st game in transition. … He’s so good in transition, he still got a couple no matter what you emphasize. We changed up some ball screen coverages, we ran some different guys at him, we tried to keep fresh bodies on him. He gets 28 again but he took 20 shots, so I’m kind of pleased with that. If we didn’t foul so much in the last 10 minutes he probably wouldn’t hae been able to get to that number. But you can’t stop him. He’s that good, he really is. Because he can get his shot anytime he wants …. and it’s a good shot. You’ve just got to make him earn everything and I thought we did. …. He’s the player of the year in this league…. He’s getting my vote because he’s been tremendous all year long. And he’s just not a scorer, he creates shots for other people, he’s unselfish, he plays hard every play, he’s a very good defender. I really respect the kid, especially when you look at the progression. He’s what college basketball’s supposed to be about. He averaged 2 points a game as a freshman, now he’s averaging 25. He didnt’ mope around and say I’m going to transfer … he just kept getting better and he put the responsibility on him to become a great player. …. He got better every year. … He obviously put in more work every year. …. He could be a pig and say okay we’re losing I’m going to take 30 shots a game, he doesn’t do that, he plays within the offense, gets his points and helps create other points as well. He gets five defensive rebounds from the point  position, you don’t do that unless you’re playing with great energy. It sounds like I love the kid, sheesh, but in this day and age you don’t see that very often.”

James Johnson: “We’ve got to do a better job of finishing games, we’ve got to have some other guys step up and play. But I thought we had some guys that fought. … We’ve got to have some other guys playing better. …. (The Thursday 9 pm game) did affect us with the short bench.”

Johnson on Eddie not playing after his meltdown: “Will Johnston was playing well too, Will Johnston was a little bit more productive so it was kind of twofold.”

Johnson on whether Eddie will play Tuesday after his meltdown: “He made a mistake and it’s over. .. I addressed it with the team, addressed it with him and we’re going to move forward.”

Johnson on Green’s exhaustion: “3 or 4 games ago I saw the wear down in him. I didn’t know it would get to this point. … I don’t think it was just this game. I think it’s the toll of a few games in a row and the turnaround game probably had a little bit to do with it but even before that you could see his body wearing down, throwing all the defensive schemes and the 2 and 3 guys at him, it’s kind of caught up with him.”

Johnson on the 2nd half: “We did a good job with the defense once we made a couple adjustments. In the first half they were going inside on us and we were kind of playing in front. Holsey got through over the top for some layups which wasn’t in the game plan. We kind of tightened a few things up.”

Johnson on VT missing 4 straight shots, including 2 by Green, once the Hokies cut the lead to 11 in the 2nd half: “That was a little bit of Erick Green wearing down. He just didn’t have it in his tank. We were running a couple things for him and a couple other guys we were trying to get in the mix, and Robert made an effort to get in there and make a couple plays and it just didn’t go down for him.”

Johnson on the supporting cast: “Those guys are trying. It is a little frustrating when … you’re trying to get looks for certain guys and the plays just aren’t going down for them. You’ve got a guy like Green and you want a lot of the stuff to go through him but at times it can’t go through him all the time. There’s certain sets and certain situations that we can’t even run becasue … they’re going to send 3 guys at him. …. It’s special to have a guy like Green out there on the floor but you need some other guys … to step up and make plays. … Surprised that guys aren’t’ consistent. .. Early on we were able to win because of those guys. We were getting point production from Brown, from Eddie and from Raines.”

Johnson on if he feels VT is the worst team in the ACC (again, he is in denial too so I will not use this quote in the paper): “No. I still think we’re pretty good. I still think this team is improving and getting better. It’s not showing up in the win column and that’s disappointing and that’s frustrating. … We’re back and we’re doing certain things better, our defense, like we get the stops in a row. … In certain gmes our 2-3 has been pretty good, … our man has been good and then we just haven’t finished the game. I still think we’re right there. We’re close. We’ve got to find a way to finish.”

Johnson on Raines: “The same looks he got the other night, he missed them point blank. I told him in the locker room, just keep taking those shots, they’re going to go down for you. They were point blank. That may have had a little bit to do with a little bit of fatigue. .. He just missed some shots that he’s capable of making, that he will make.”

Johnson on Barksdale, who had a double double the first meeting but no baskets this time: “They tried to go at him and get him out of the game and get him in foul trouble. That shows the respect Ga. Tech had for him.”

Johnson on the first half, playing twice in 3 days: “I knew it was going to be a slow start for us.”