Paul Hewitt Quotes (61 Quotes)

The talent is definitely stretched a little thinner. In terms of the concentration of top 100, top 200 players-- it is spread out a little more. You think about going all the way back to Princeton, N.J., where you had the best 200 players in the country. Then, you went to two camps and now we're at three camps. I guess it's not all bad, because now you give more kids an opportunity to be seen. And we tend to lose sight that the game is supposed to be about opportunities for kids to get an education or be seen and do something better with their lives, as opposed to making it sane for college coaches.

They know when it's crunch time, they've got to get the ball to Craig Smith or they're getting the ball to Jared Dudley. I appreciate watching them - unless you're on the other end of the bench.

The underage drinker is not only at fault, but there is an adult behind that. If they're drinking underage (they're) breaking the law and whoever provided that alcohol is breaking the law.

I remember one game we played and the team was pressing us and I had him bringing the ball up the court. A fellow coach, a friend of mine called me and said, 'Either you're a genius or you're crazy. How do you have a 6-10 freshman bringing the ball up the court Don't you realize that every NBA team will see that

He's unbelievable. It's rare to find such an all-around player. He's a good student, he's a good person, he's a great player, he works at his game, he's humble. I don't care what field you're in, it's rare to have a person that has that combination.

... When we get youth involved I would hope we have an impact on our school-age people. Whether we're in the schools or outside of (them), as long they (know) the risks of risky drinking I think our goals are being met.

We haven't taken care of the ball. It's been so hard for us to put together consistent stretches in games.

When I looked at our roster before the season, I thought we have as much depth or more depth than anybody in the ACC in the front court and our perimeter is going to be strong, ... It was just a matter of our guys going out and proving to everybody that they were good.

When you don't do the little things - the boxing out, the transition defense, all the things you have to do - you leave it to a chance or you leave it to a bounce.

Over the time I've been recruiting in Memphis and West Tennessee, I've seen that the shooting is very good. Whoever is teaching these guys how to shoot is doing something right.

They have to prepare for the best punch everybody has to offer every game. How those guys don't get worn down by it year after year after year is a credit to the coaching staff and the young men who come in and put on that uniform.

We couldn't get anything to fall. Their defense was a good part of the reason we didn't make any shots, but we had some roll off.

I knew at this point we'd be able to score, but there are some things, defensively, we really have to clean up before we play our first game, ... We have a good opportunity next Saturday to play another scrimmage closed to the public. I'm very anxious about seeing what we can do then.

It goes without saying, we start all over, we start from scratch. It's unfortunate that what took five years to build was wiped away with one season.

He's starting to understand some of the little things you have to do. He's a talented, gifted scorer who can rebound. Defensively, off the ball, he's much, much better than he was last year or even earlier this year.

The concerns I've had is that defensively we haven't maintained our concentration. We've had some good spurts of playing good basketball, but we have not maintained the intensity, especially on defense. That's where we've really fallen down.

He shoots it from very, very deep. I really think he surprises some of the defenders with how deep he can shoot that basketball.

I thought we were ready. Wake took it to us physically and we didn't respond.

It wouldn't make any sense because there's just too much time between fifth or sixth grade and the time a player is a high school senior. Kids mature at different rates -- not just physically but with their basketball skills.

We executed well in stretches, but . . . we took a couple possessions off. It was finishing off the execution. Three times we had (Anthony) Morrow open in the corner. They didn't see him. I guess he blended in with the crowd.

I'd be surprised if Air Force doesn't make the NCAA tournament, with the way they play and run their stuff. This is an opportunity lost for us. Now, we've got to try to build it back up and get to a point where we get this kind of chance again.

Thaddeus didn't shoot really well the other night, but the good thing about him is that he's not just a scorer. He can do other things, too. We also really liked his transcript. He's a Georgia Tech-type of kid.

You realized very early on it wasn't just about basketball. It was a platform to help people. The winning of the game became somewhat insignificant.

I think we may have gotten a little tired mentally. I'm not sure if we wanted it bad enough or not. Maybe we did, but I do know Clemson wanted it more than we did today.

He's not going to miss that shot. You've got to contest it.

He's going to have to earn it. I don't think, for a role that important, you just give it to somebody. I feel like I have a good handle on what he's capable of from a basketball-playing standpoint. But there's a lot more that goes into the starting point guard role for our team. I have a tendency to be hard on those guys.

This is a 401(k)-styled defined contribution plan, ... It has performed very, very well.

Talent-wise, I'm convinced we can be competitive. But we've suffered injuries to Lewis and now Mario. It's a long season, and we're getting better.

I thought when we executed well, we got some great first attempts. ... There were a couple of breakdowns (and) in a game like this you can't have the breakdowns. You have to try to win every possession.

I thought we got into trouble when they started pressuring us and the five-count was on. Instead of taking them off the dribble, we got tentative. I just think we stopped attacking.

He had the call. I'm not a referee. ... Every coach is going to disagree when it doesn't go their way.

Those are the kinds of things you look back on and realize that so many people benefit from passing along their experiences, their successes and their failures. It meant a lot to me.

This was the first game in about a month where I don't feel like we took a step forward. We'd been improving every game up until today.

No disrespect to North Carolina, ... but this was no upset out here today. To be written off was kind of amusing to me. This team has played in big games, has won big games and demonstrated again it can still win big games.

I think it's an object lesson that paying the cost of Social Security in the future is going to depend upon economic growth. If you don't have growth, our pensions and other obligations are going to become unaffordable.

I find myself very lucky to have this job, and I just want to go out and do it. Coaching in the ACC is privilege, and I've tried not to look at it as a hardship. This is a talented basketball team we have. We shouldn't be 3-8, but we are. We've got to try to do something about it here down the stretch.

I knew it was going to happen because I know his talent level and I know what he's capable of. But when he was in rut he was in, I didn't know if he was going to work his way out of it.

Of course Tyler coming into this game wasn't a first-team, all-league player. I would say he made a pretty good statement here tonight.

Willie plays his best when the weather gets warm. He turns it on during tournament time.

I thought some of our aggression just went away. It's tough to explain. It wasn't like they were thinking the game was over at the half. In the last eight minutes, they made more plays than we did.

This group has slowly figured out that we can't blame it on anybody else, that we can't hang our heads. If we want to change this, it's got to start inside our locker room. I would say over the last week or 10 days, we've really practiced extremely hard every single time.

You have to get lucky in recruiting and stay injury-free. There are just so many things that can impact your success, it can really be out of your control.

This is Social Security, and the government is not going to get itself into a situation where it has to cover for a lot of cowboys out there, ... There will be standards and they probably will be written tighter...we have a pretty good private pension system and it's very regulated, and there are surprisingly few blow-ups.

We haven't changed anything, ... What I plan to do, probably around Oct. 1, is cut back on individual instruction and do more team stuff.

We talk about the tradition of Georgia Tech basketball when we go out recruiting, and in some sense, I feel like I owe those guys something, ... Now, we've built on that tradition, and now here we are in the Final Four.

We're not going to shy away from our goals. Our No. 1 goal is always to get back to the NCAA tournament.

We need to do a better job of getting the ball in his hands. That's something we did not do well in the Air Force game. It's something we made a point of today, especially with Mario West out, to try to get him more touches and more involved. I still think, actually, he can get some more shots.

People seem to understand even in the NBA when a really good team loses its players it's going to be a struggle,

We've tried to remind him that he's a very good player and he can make plays for us. That's a nice boost for his confidence going into our last game.

We may not have one name that people can latch on to, so we're somewhat nondescript. But this has been an excellent basketball team the whole season.