Seventh Annual Puerto Rico Tip-Off
November 21, 22, and 24, 2013
Coliseo Roberto Clemente, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Results & Schedules
Friday, November 22 Results & Schedule
(daily attendance, 5,835)
·
Georgetown 90,
Kansas State 63
·
Semi-finals,
Charlotte 86, Northeastern 77
·
Semi-finals,
Michigan 82, Florida State 80 (overtime)
·
VCU 73,
Long Beach State 67
Sunday, November 24 Schedule Atlantic Time Tip-Off........
Network
·
Game No. 9
-
Kansas State vs. Long Beach State 12:30 p.m........................ ESPN3
·
Game No. 10
-
Georgetown vs. VCU 3 p.m........................... ESPNU
·
Game No. 11
-
Northeastern vs. Florida State 5:30 p.m......................... ESPN2
·
Championship, Game No. 12
-
Charlotte vs. Michigan 7:30 p.m......................... ESPN2
PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF
GAME 5: GEORGETOWN VS. KANSAS STATE 90-63
Georgetown Coach John Thompson III:
“Yesterday
was horrible, horrible. I don’t want to say that to take anything away
from Northeastern, but yesterday was horrible. I thought we were pretty
good today.”
“If
you’re asking if we had a conversation last night, yes we did. I think,
I hope, I pray, that today is more indicative of who we are. I thought
that our overall
attention to detail was much better today. Our overall willingness to
help each other at both ends of the court was much better today. Our
ability to do it for longer stretches in a possession, meaning
defensively not breaking down after 10-15 seconds or offensively
not looking to force something and just chuck up a long shot. Two much
different games – obviously the outcome was much different, but I also
think our mindset was much closer today to where it has to be.”
“When
Josh Smith is in the game, we have an advantage in the paint. He’s
someone that’s going to command attention. He’s an unselfish player, so
when they double
him, playing inside-out is something that we always want to do.”
“From
their perspective, it’s good to see Thomas Gipson back on the court.
He’s a presence down there, he’s poised, he takes his time. You watch
the few tapes of
them when he wasn’t playing and look at last year, they’re a much
different team. Our post guys did a good job of putting pressure on him
when he was on defense, our offensive end, but he is a very good
player.”
Georgetown Guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera:
“Taking
that loss yesterday, it settled in with us not very well obviously. We
went over the film and had to come in basically right after that and
study Kansas State. Basically
what we wanted to do was suck it up and come out with a win today.
Unfortunately we had to suffer that loss yesterday, but that can’t be
what motivates us to win games. We bounced back today and got the win.”
Georgetown Center Joshua Smith:
“We
knew we had to be more aggressive, but it was two different games.
Yesterday Northeastern played a 3-2, Kansas State is more of a man team,
which plays to our advantage
with what we want to run. We knew going in we’d have to be aggressive
and that it’d be a lot of one-on-one coverage. With me, you know, if you
play me one-on-one, I’m going to be aggressive every time.”
Kansas State Coach Bruce Weber:
“Obviously
the start of the game really got us in a hole. You can’t do that
against good teams and we caught them after a very tough loss. For them
and their program, I’m
sure they were a little extra motivated. They definitely played as well
as they could. I thought they shot the ball better, picked on us with
different people on the backdoors and the quick posts and things and
spread us. We did compete and fight back to get
it to 16-12, but boom right away they get it back up to where it’s
double digits. You’re just fighting uphill the whole game. We have to
play better, we don’t have much size and we’re going to have to do a
better job of playing post defense. Because of their
system, they’ve got you spread out so much, hopefully if we would have
had a day or so prep we could’ve competed a little better, but we didn’t
and got our butts spanked. Now you’ve got to deal with it and move
forward.”
“The
biggest issue with this team…I think determination, understanding what
we are, all those things are important. We actually played better
offensively and only
got 63. We’re not shooting great – we shot less threes, I thought we
were a little more patient, got to the free throw line a bit better,
offensive rebounds – but at the same time we’ve got to play smarter. At
the beginning it was very, very physical, and
we didn’t deal with it very well. That’s where a lot of the turnovers
came in and they got into transition. If you let them get into
transition and they run their stuff, it puts you in a bind.”
“We’ll see what leadership is about and toughness and see if we can manage something out of the weekend.”
“They
made some shots today. They made a couple runners, guys that never make
those shots, and that’s their credit, some games are like that. They
made the threes.
You know, we talked about mixing it up, playing zone. We had one day
prep against their stuff, some of our guys don’t even know what
Princeton offense is. Our freshman, they’ve never seen this. They kind
of got us anyway they wanted to and made shots. Northeastern
got them tight and then they didn’t react to it very well. Today, we
never got it over the hump to get them where they got out of rhythm.”
Kansas State Coach Thomas Gipson:
“We’ve
just got to stick together. Coach really harps on leadership. The older
guys need to be better leaders for the younger guys, we’re kind of
messing up on that. Right
now we’re not a true team, we kind of play individually on the court.
We still have time to bring it together before Big 12 play. We just have
to use these losses as learning lessons for the future.”
PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF
GAME 6: CHARLOTTE VS. NORTHEASTERN 86-77
Charlotte Coach Alan Major:
“Another
hard fought game. These guys have really embraced the idea the farther
away you get from home, the closer you’ve got to stay together. We told
them Northeastern
doesn’t go away. I mean, talk about a well-coached team. We knew that
from last year playing them in Alaska. They just keep coming at you. It
got sticky that in the second half and we didn’t come out with quite the
pop that we did to start the game. The guys
kind of re-energized themselves.”
“Very
happy with this guy next to me here (Ben Cherry). It’s kind of like you
can’t keep a good man down, and Ben’s hard on himself that he hadn’t
shot it well
up to this point. Very proud of him because he has just stayed after
it. He’s been a wonderful addition to our team regardless if he makes a
shot or not. So today, we just caught a good dose of gravy when he
started knocking a few in. He’s been a team guy,
a glue guy, wonderful human being, so I’m proud of Ben as well. But
just a great team effort again everybody chipped in.”
“Hopefully
we can continue the team effort trend, it makes us harder to prepare
for. It’s not one or two guys that people have to put on a scouting
report, put
a circle around. The 17 assists to nine turnovers, I was happy with
that as well. The scoring balance and that were the two biggest stats
and then probably the free throws down the stretch, 22-28 was very
good.”
Charlotte Guard Ben Cherry:
“The
guys that were already here are real experienced, so just being able to
come into the mix with guys that have been in and won big games, that
definitely is important.
The cool part is there was a different lineup out there yesterday to
finish the game. Then today, we went a little bit smaller and we were
able to get five or six stops in a row and a bucket on the other side.
So that’s a big confidence booster when you can
finish games like that.”
“I’ve
been watching my teammates shoot it well during the beginning of the
season, so I’ve been trying to rub their hands trying to get some of
that magic. Just
a little bit. I just wanted one to fall. Definitely seeing them knock
down shots, it’s like OK, it can happen, it should happen. It was
definitely nice to have a few go in today.”
Northeastern Coach Bill Coen:
“Charlotte
played really, really well today. Unfortunately our zone wasn’t as
effective today as it was yesterday. We allowed them to get off to a
really hot start. They
made great shots, kind of forced us out of the zone. In the second
half, our man-to-man was much better. Coming out of the locker room we
got back into the game. Unfortunately the story of the second half is we
just left to many points on the free throw line.
We got to the line and it was a competitive game, but we had a number
of empty trips in a row and allowed them to get separation again. At
that point, we were just a little too tired to make another run.”
“We’ve
got to find a way to give him (David Walker) a blow, but he’s so
important to what we do. It’s hard to find those minutes in competitive
games. When you’re
competing against the teams that are in this field, a short minute or
two can really make a swing in the score board. So we’ve been pushing
him a little bit, but hopefully he’ll get a good day’s rest and be ready
to compete again on Sunday.”
“You’ve
got to give a lot of credit to Charlotte, they played an excellent
basketball game. Two of the things that kind of cover up some mistakes –
our free throw
shooting and three point shooting. I thought we did many of the other
things in the game well, but we left some points on the free throw line.
When you do that, you get exposed, you leave yourself open to games
like this. In order to beat a quality opponent,
you’ve got to make some threes and make your free throws down the
stretch. To Charlotte’s credit they did that all afternoon.”
Northeastern Forward Scott Eatherton:
“We
try to get it down low a lot to me and Reggie (Spencer). When we get
the ball we’re supposed to try to score, and then rebounding is just a
given that’s what we’re down
there for. I just try to get as many rebounds as I can.”
“I
think we were in the game. Like what coach said, with the missed free
throws. That really hurt us; that kind of brought us down. We’ve kind of
been struggling
a little bit the whole season. If we would have made those free throws,
it would’ve given us a little extra energy and maybe the outcome
would’ve been a little different.”
PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF
GAME 7: MICHIGAN VS. FLORIDA STATE 82-80 OT
Michigan Coach John Beilein:
“For
a November game, we’ve had a couple of these now this and the Iowa
State game, it seemed like it was a playoff feel to it. Florida State –
I’ve coached a lot of years,
haven’t seen a team this efficient with that type of length with their
guards, they’ve got a nice compliment between their guards and big guys.
When you finish over Mitch McGary with ease when he’s bodying you up,
that’s a talented, talented big guy. And several
of them did it, so we were very fortunate to get that win and go on to
the Championship game.”
“We
made our own grave there. We came out all fired up and we didn’t get a
couple breaks at the other end, a couple of loose balls and then we came
down and really
didn’t execute on offense. All the sudden you look and it’s 16 points.
Jeff Meyer said in the huddle, ‘We’re not going to score 14 points in
this one possession. It’s got to be two-by-two.’ We just worked at it
and changed up some things we were doing and
obviously we slowly crept into the game.”
“We
were just trying to get Nik (Stauskas) the ball and make sure he had
some space. Mitch (McGary) was going to give him a screen and play ball.
There’s not enough
time with 11 seconds to go, knowing how they were shutting down some
things, we just tried to keep it real simple.”
“Today,
there were several times that I was comfortable with both Nik
(Stauskas), but then Glenn Robinson came up big for us, made some big
shots…and Mitch (McGary)
just gave us so much energy.”
“You
know what was really fortunate is that Derrick Walton is the only one
that hadn’t played in it that much before, but he was a warrior in it. I
mean absolute
warrior in it. That’s something you’ve got to have at the bottom of
that. They scored a couple layups, but we didn’t want to give up any
threes. It’s a difficult zone in that situation. With one day prep, I’m
sure that Leonard (Hamilton), I mean what are you
going to do with that? So that really helped us.”
Michigan Forward Mitch McGary: “I want to credit Florida State on their
play. Tonight was a battle and I think we stuck together and showed our core values tonight.”
“We
just didn’t want to go home with another loss on our chests. We came
together as a team and before the game, the coaches made a great point
for us to stay together.
We fought through that adversity the whole time and possession after
possession we got stops and it paid off in the end.”
“Going
into halftime we were down 10, we still had a positive attitude towards
the game. We knew we needed to get stops each possession, there’s not a
10-point
basket where we can get right back in the game, we just had to grind it
out each possession and that’s what we did.”
“I’m
getting there, it’s a process, I can’t get back into shape overnight. I
didn’t play as much last night, kind of saving me for tonight and it
worked out. I
felt good out there.”
“Going
up against a team with such size and length –they’ve got 7’3 and 7’1 –
I’ve never played against a team with two seven-footers, which is
difficult. I think
we did a good job, Glenn (Robinson III) and I, both on the glass with
both (Jon) Horford and Jordan (Morgan). I kind of just boxed them out
and had the guards clean-up for me, so it was a team effort.”
Michigan Guard Nik Stauskas:
“Florida State played a great game. Especially
in that first half, they were beating us pretty bad. I think it just
says a lot about this team, how much we’re able to stick together, the
fact that we were able to overcome that deficit and win in overtime.”
“Me
and Mitch (McGary) were just going to run a screen-and-roll, I looked
and the whole baseline was open so I kind of just rejected the screen.
The middle was
wide open, I got an open layup.”
“I
think I got a couple good looks in the first half, they just didn’t go
down. The second half I just got into a rhythm a little bit more,
started being more aggressive
and getting to the basket. Anytime you can get to the free throw line a
lot it’s a good way to get easy points on the board and get your
confidence up so that’s what my deal was in the second half.”
“Whatever
the defense was going to give me, that’s what I was going to take. The
lane was wide open, the baseline was wide open, so that was the best
opportunity
for me.”
Michigan Guard Derrick Walton Jr.: “We’ve been working on the one-three-one,
we just thought it would work at that time. We went with it, trusted it, and it worked for us.”
“My
teammates help me a lot; we stay together, they encourage me to be
myself and be a leader of this team. I’m embracing the role and they’re
helping a lot.”
Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton:
“There
were about three things that happened in the game that really lead to
our undoing. They beat us to about five loose balls that were 50-50
balls in critical parts of
the second half, and they were just a little more aggressive. We
stepped out of bounds three times, dribbled off our foot once,
uncharacteristically. Not any fault of our players, just kind of the
nature of the game. Sometime you run into a game and you have
bad luck like that.”
“I
kind of figured that coach would use the one-three-one tonight, and we
worked on it a little bit this morning in our walkthrough in the
ballroom. We had not
spent a lot of time against the one-three-one. I thought our players
were extremely tentative when they went to it. What we wanted was
available for us, but I think you have to have repetitions going over
schemes consistently in order for things that you have
to do to become habit. It made us tentative, we we’re not nearly as
aggressive.”
“They
deserved the victory today. They did the things they needed to do to
win the basketball game and I thought we came up just a little bit
short.”
“Mitch
McGary is obviously just an outstanding player. He didn’t do anything
that surprised us, he’s just talented. He played like great players
play, he played
great basketball. He has not been playing much, he’s been recovering
from his injury, but Mitch is a special, unique, extremely skilled big
man that has a great future in the game of basketball. His strength is
his basketball IQ. He makes great decisions with
the ball, kind of like a point center. He not only performs at a high
level himself, but he makes his teammates better. You have to give him a
lot of credit for being a guy who’s a tough, skilled, smart basketball
player. I wish he had missed a couple more
games before he came back. He’s a handful. You can expect him not only
to be successful in this tournament, but I think there will be a lot of
other coaches feel just like I feel right now.”
“We
knew that part of their scheme is that they drive baseline. They
executed their offense better than we did our defense. That’s part of
what they do, they drilled
the baseline and they locate players on the other side. They’ve been
doing that all year long, so it was no surprise. It’s just that our
player looked at the screen just long enough for Stauskus to drive
baseline.”