On Sahvir Wheeler’s historic performance…
“I had no idea on the triple double until the end of the game when John Bateman told me. I really don’t look at the stats during the game. Probably sometimes I should, but I had no idea. It’s phenomenal, and it’s incredible when you think about how many years they’ve played basketball here—116 years, and it’s the first time its happened. Really, he had a quadruple-double because he had 10 deflections, which is important to me, and Toumani [Camara] had a triple-double because he had the points and rebounds, and he had 15 deflections. We got a lot of high-level energy and effort basketball out of these guys, and they established early on that they were going to play with toughness. I said to them today, ‘That they team that established the toughness was going to be the team that got the running game going best,’ because it’s hard to get your running game going consistently if you’re taking the ball out of the net. So many times, our guys got the rebound, we got out ahead, and we didn’t have too many live-ball turnovers in the first half, which made a huge difference to us. We got a lot of really good contributions. K.D. [Johnson] did an excellent job. P.J. [Horne] made threes. Tye Fagan did outstanding! We had a lot of really good basketball. They’ve done a great job bouncing back from the other day. They just continue to show resilience. They just continue to get better every day.”
On the takeaways from a big win against a good team…
“I think you take a lot. It’s the way you prepare. It’s the mindset. It’s the ball movement. It’s staying connected defensively. It’s the defensive rebounds. I thought Toumani [Camara] established that he was going to be on that rim rebounding-wise, scoring-wise, and most importantly with blocking the shots early and challenging them. That was very important. It was a very efficient many ways. It was an outstanding team. He does a great job with them. They have enormously talented players. We knew from playing them the first time that we had to be better defensively. We had to be better taking care of the ball. You can never come in and say that you know you’re going to shoot the ball so well, but I thought even the threes that we missed were open threes, good threes. Again, you have to establish that you’re going to play in the paint. You have to establish that you’re going to get to the foul line, and that’s what we were able to do.”
On triple-doubles in his coaching career…
“I know we had a famous one when Dwyane Wade had his at Kentucky. I think I had another one at Indiana. I don’t know. So many times, I’m not good with stats, heck, I forget our own players numbers sometimes. I just don’t sit here and wait on that stuff. For him to get a triple-double this late in the season like that and to do it the way that he did it against a very good team like that, that says a lot about where he’s at and where his future is heading. I’m never very good at putting it into perspective until I watch the film, but we wanted to come out and establish aggressiveness, toughness, physicality, and speed, and for the most part—these guys did that.”
On being loose in warmups…
“It’s a good thing that I don’t come out for warmups then because I might not have read that right. They were confident. We had a good day, and we had a very short walkthrough. We spent more time watching film this afternoon and showing what we were capable of, so they were in a good frame of mind. It’s being loose without being giddy and loose without being careless. That’s a good way to play.”
On having underclassmen contributors to build the team on…
“I think you just live in the moment, I think you really do. You live in this moment and like I said, ‘When this season ends it’s the last time inevitably—we’ll all be together.’ There is no reason for that to have to happen any time soon and I thought our seniors did a really good job as well, but again I don’t think as much about next year I don’t think as much about the youth of it, if you’re on the court right now that means you can play and it means you can impact winning. I could have easily played a few more guys tonight based on the way practices have been, I just didn’t do it. To me it all comes down to whatever five are on the floor that you’re as connected to what you have to do defensively, be in the stands, be active, you’re not guarding LSU in just a one-on-one, even though we wanted our one-on-one to be good. something Sahvir [Wheeler] said, this is another assist to Sahvir, after the game the other day, and I make my points and I ask if anybody else has got anything and he made a great point, he said ‘We have got to start taking pride in our individual matchups.’ He said that, it’s one thing for a coach to say that, it’s another thing for a player to say that, especially a leader player, a player of leadership. That became—we are going to make sure over these next few days that we understand that we can guard these guys one-on-one without overhelp. It’s a lot easier said than done trying to guard Trendon Watford and Cameron Thomas and Javonte Smart and Darius Days. I think one of the keys is that Days only had two points, and he is such a factor because when they win he gets fifteen and when they lose he averages six, he’s such a factor. You can’t sleep on anybody that he puts in, but he’s got four bona fide guys that you’ve got to be sure of every possession and that’s not easy. So, it’s got to be individual defense mixed with a collective mindset on how you’re going to show, help, play the ball and see your man. For the youth to be able to do that is a good sign that we are trying to pick this up and understand what we are trying to get done defensively.”
On what he can take away from the numbers of tonight’s game and in his coaching…
“It’s very, very rare, it’s never going to sink in when it happens immediately, but it’s also a very profound thing to have somebody accomplish that at such a young age, in such a prestigious league against a really good opponent like that. I think it’s just part of the experience whether you’re coming back from your deficit with your hold in a lead. Whatever it is, every experience you go through should help prepare you for the next one. When he [Wheeler] has shown, he had seven rebounds against Missouri last week, when we understand that we have to get guard rebounds because we are not going to be overly physical with the majority of these frontlines that we, see so we have to be physical with them, and that may mean that we don’t get the board, but we have to have a guard slide in there to do it, Sahvir understood that. I think the way you get it in a win, the way he did it defensively in his activity too, that says a lot.”
On how big lead at halftime catapulted the team…
“I think it did a ton. It’s the way we did it, and they did it on the defensive end, and we stayed locked in. The baskets they were making, for the most part, they had to earn them. We were not giving them baskets, they had to earn the baskets. A lot of times we were getting a defensive board, and we were making the next pass, getting behind the defense. We got our running game going, we got some easy buckets, some dunks, some lay-ups which I think were really, really important. The threes build confidence, but the dunks, the layups, the getting behind the defense – that builds leads and that’s what you have to get. I thought we took a few too many threes early on, so I wanted to make sure we were getting the thing established to go through the paint because we know we are going to need that bonus. We’ve got to be there. That’s a number I do know, I know all the time where we are at in conjunction with how we’ve got to go to get to the bonus. I know we are successful if we get to it early now. Those kind of numbers I pay attention to during a game. I don’t study the numbers until after the game really. But bottom-line, momentum is always up for grabs, and these guys did a really good job of grabbing momentum and not letting it go.”
On Wheeler’s aggressiveness…
“I think it says a lot, and he had 11 [rebounds]. I am just looking at it now, he had three offensive boards. I think it says a lot about being in position. Right, like you are guarding, and you are in position. He is a tough kid; I mean he is a tough man. He has an incredibly bright future, there is no doubt about it. So, when you do—when you play that way and show your level of toughness—when a point guard gets a rebound, it skips a whole step in the break, there is no outlet anymore. Now, you are going, you are speeding up the floor, now you are throwing the ball ahead to someone in scoring position or someone who can make one more pass. That makes all the difference in the world, and when you can skip that step of getting the outlet passed to your point guard because the point guard grabbed the ball, it is a big deal.”
On adding another game this regular season…
“That’s not up to us. That will be up to the league, and we’ll learn from them. We’ll play another game next week. We’ll learn later in the week who that is going to be, but certainly we play to play. I don’t think there is any reason that we wouldn’t, unless something happened with COVID[-19] with somebody else. We will wait for the league to tell us, and we’ll go, whether it’s here, on the road, we’ll be ready to roll.”
On if him having the first triple-double in school history tonight has really sunken in yet…
“It’s a great feeling, but it’s an even better feeling for it to come out of a win. The biggest thing was the rebounding because Coach Crean, my dad, and some of my other AAU coaches have been telling me that guard-rebounding is a big thing, especially in the league. We can’t always depend on Andrew [Garcia] and those guys because those guys are fighting some monsters down there, so it’s going to be hard for them to fight and then go get the rebounds. That’s something we’ve been emphasizing, so I’m trying to help in there and get as many rebounds as I can. With the rebounds, that makes our break faster because that’s one less pass and one less second that we’re wasting if we’re already in our lanes and in our rhythm. Guys also made shots; guys made shots today, and that’s always a good thing for a win—a confidence-boosting win against a good team. It was a good day.”
On if he aims for triple-doubles, and when tonight it seemed possible…
“I knew the double-double was definitely possible, with the eight rebounds at halftime so I was trying to get to 10 rebounds to secure the double-double. Then we went on a run and those guys started hitting some shots, guys like P.J. [Horne], Toumani [Camara] made some nice cuts, and even K.D. [Johnson] got himself involved in early offense. So, that’s when I thought there might be a little chance here. Like I say when it comes to the assists, the credit is always to my teammates. Those are the guys who finish the plays and make the shots, so if it wasn’t for them, I obviously wouldn’t be in this position. I was just hoping it [the 10thassist to K.D. Johnson] would go in, and they wouldn’t call offensive goaltending or interference, but they let it play out. “
On how this game can boost both the team’s and his confidence…
“Having a good win like this at home is definitely a confidence booster against a quality opponent. LSU is a tournament team, they’re consistently good, and they got us the first time earlier this year, so we wanted to come home and protect home court and get the win. After a five-game stretch of some really tough competition in the SEC, we’ve played some really good games and some good halves. We finally wanted to put together two good halves of basketball, especially at home, so that was the main focus. Definitely, a confidence booster going into South Carolina, that’s a team that I don’t think we’ve beaten yet since I’ve been here or since Coach Crean has been here, so we’re really focusing on winning that game. We don’t know what’s going to happen next, as far as the postseason, because this has never happened before having a pandemic in the postseason. If we continue to win games and take it one day at a time and get better each day, I think that good things will happen.”
On leaving his mark on this program in such a short time…
“I think it’s just a testament to the work that I put in, as well as a testament to the coaching staff. With how much they believed in me and had a vision for me when I de-committed from Texas A&M. Coach Crean and his staff showed a lot of faith, a lot of heart, and they wanted me here. They wanted me to come to be a part of something big and they wanted me to come in and lead this team and the program. All that is to them.”
On the joy that he plays with on the court…
“At the end of the day, obviously basketball is a business, but it’s a basketball game. Games are meant to be fun and you’re meant to enjoy them. This is something that I hope to be playing for all of my life, so I want to enjoy it while I can. As far as teammates, our camaraderie over the past month or so has been on a great level, and we knew that at some point there was going to be a big breakthrough. Like I said, in the last couple of games we’ve played some really good halves and learned a lot about ourselves. We learned about what a happy brand of basketball is and for us to put these two halves together and win this game was big for us and a great confidence booster going into Saturday and beyond.”
On how much of an influence Anthony Edwards had on the program and him…
“Obviously playing with a number one pick is intriguing in any sport, just to get that firsthand experience of what it’s like to be at that level and what comes with the work ethic. I met Anthony [Edwards] previously at the NBA Top 100 Camp, and I knew he was cool; he was a personable guy with a great personality. Like you said, having fun is something that I’ve always done. I’ve always personally played the best when I was loose with a smile on my face, even when things weren’t going my way. Him starting it because he was the biggest thing coming out of Georgia, he led the way and created that path, and I want to keep that going. Hopefully, my infectious personality can spread to others until that’s just the culture of Georgia: we’re playing fast, defending, we have a grit and grind team, but we’re also having fun.”
On how his father will coach him after a great night like tonight…
“My dad is going to tell me I’m the best in the world as any other father should. He’s going to congratulate me and praise me, but I know in two days or so we’re going to watch the game and he’s going to tell me some things that I could have done better. He’s been coaching me since I was in third grade, I remember when I decided to take basketball seriously, and he told me that he could make me into a player if I buy into him. From then on, we’ve been rocking out together all the way through AAU until my last summer in 11th grade. Even in high school, he was the head assistant coach at my high school. We won a lot of games together, lost very few games together, but the games we lost we learned a lot and I wouldn’t be here today without him, for sure.”