JT3 speaks, post-Louisville win

December 31, 2011 - The Hoya Nation has been pridefully abuzz after Georgetown's 71-68 victory at then fourth ranked Louisville this week. In the win, sophomore guard Markel Starks dropped in a career high 20 points, work that surely helped propel the Hoyas to 11-1 for the season, 1-0 in BIG EAST play. After losing what was also its league opener to 12th ranked G'Town, Louisville stands 0-1 in conference,12-1 overall.

Following are quotes from after the win, from head Hoya, John Thomson III.

(On whether the win was a validation):

"Validate? To who? We are one game into league play. It was a very good big win against a very good team in a difficult place to play. We aren't worrying about validation right now. We just want to try to accumulate wins."

(On his freshmen class keeping them in the game in the first half):

It's no doubt about that. Otto (Porter), Jabril (Trawick), Mikael (Hopkins) came in and gave us outstanding minutes. You say freshman class, and they are freshmen and this is their first BIG EAST experience, but they've been doing that since the summer. It's a group that plays hard and competes. With all that being said, we're fortunate to get away with a win. They turned up the heat on us. We had some careless turnovers; we have to tighten up a few things as we go on."

(On what he said to the team when Louisville tied the game):

"Were we on offense or defense? I don't remember. They tied the game. We all felt that if we could protect the ball and execute at the offensive end, we did a better job of guarding that one ball screen in the second half than we did the first half. We just wanted to get into our offense and see what happened."

(On Markel Starks's maturation and game performance):

"It is still happening. He hit some big shots for us tonight when we needed shots to be made. Collectively, I don't think you can look at anybody on this team as a measure of points. He made some big plays and his defensive got better in the second half. The same thing I said about the freshmen, these guys are players. Age, class, maturation goes out the window. We are out there just playing ball."

(On tightening up on turnovers in the second half):

"I felt like we were bad coming down the stretch. We made a couple of bad decisions with the shots we took. I am probably feeling like those are turnovers. You play Louisville and they turn you over. That is what they are very good at. They are good at help each other and on ball defending. You always have to be strong with the ball and you have to always be thinking with an offensive perspective. You have to think about your teammates. You can't stand around and watch the ball. Everybody has to be involved in the game. Your teammates are going to get in trouble, and you have to be there to bail them out."

(On what Georgetown did better in the second half):

"I think they (Louisville) got us spread out in the first half. There were a lot more holes and gaps for (Peyton) Siva to get into the first half. I think we kept it a little more compact in the second half. That helped minimize the whole to get to the rim."