Jan. 31, 2015

Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery

South Carolina Head Coach Frank Martin
Opening Statement
I am really happy for our guys. They have been great again in the past couple weeks. They have done everything in their power to prepare for the game the right way, they have practiced the right way, accepted scouting reports, re-engaged in playing for one another rather than playing for themselves and trying to do all the little things. We have been right there in the past couple games against two really good basketball teams with Kentucky at home and LSU on the road. I feel bad for [Georgia head coach] Mark [Fox], they have a very good basketball team. Marcus Thornton, you could argue, is the most productive big guy in the league, and losing someone like that is not easy to do. I am just real happy for our guys, they have worked their tails off and they deserve to figure out a way to get a win.

On the defense
I thought we guarded our tails off against Kentucky and I thought we guarded LSU pretty good. You go on the road and you hold a team that has won 16 games to 39 percent I think is what they shot from the field, you are giving yourself a chance. We out-rebounded Kentucky and we out-rebounded LSU but offensively is where we have made some mistakes. I thought we cleaned some of that up because we have been paying better attention to things for two weeks, so we have progressively been getting better again. Today we got some great shots, that we used to make but we have not been making them because we got away from things. Well, now that we are re-engaged, if we keep doing the things we are doing, we are going to start making those shots again. I am just happy for our guys. The season is long and when you are around the same guys every single day and then come talk to you every single day, which is fine with me, you guys get to see both sides of what happens every single day in our locker room; the emotions that take place when everyone is pushing each other to do a little bit better. But the one thing that I have been pretty consistent about with our guys, with the exception of the first two weeks in January, is how hard they have worked and how much they care. We are back on that page again. I am happy for them because when you do things that way you deserve to win some games. I am happy for our guys.

Senior Guard Tyrone Johnson
On getting back on the winning track
It feels good to finally get back in the win column. We have been battling on the road and losing here to some tough teams and just could not pull it out. Like coach said today, we had the guts to pull it out and do everything we need to do to make big-boy plays. That all started with our defense, and our defense translates to our offense, which leads to us being able to hit some shots and keep them from not hitting shots. It was a good game for us.

Junior Forward Michael Carrera
On finishing games
We have been staying positive in every single practice and in the games, we just did not have the courage to finish the games. But we knew that the courage was going to come and we knew that this win was going to happen and now we have to get on track and move forward.

Georgia Head Coach Mark Fox
Opening Statement
South Carolina deserved to win the game certainly today much more than we did.

On South Carolina’s play
You have to give South Carolina credit but obviously without [Marcus] Thornton we were totally disjointed. We were just totally disjointed without him. We never could settle down and find a rhythm.

On playing without Marcus Thornton
He’s not only our leading scorer, he’s our leading rebounder and he’s the team leader. I was very disappointed with leadership today from our team. We didn’t have enough guys step up and fill that void. I thought we filled the rebound void okay but we didn’t fill the leadership void. That is taking nothing away from South Carolina’s team, they out-played us.