Georgetown locker room report

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The following is a transcript from Georgetown's postgame press conference featuring coach John Thompson III, senior guard Jason Clark, senior center Henry Sims and junior wing Hollis Thompson.

COACH THOMPSON III: "Before we get to talking about specifics or about this game, I just want to say I don't know that I've ever been as proud to be associated with a group of men, with a team as much as I am with this team this year.

"This team, in spite of whatever downs we've had and losses like today, has been a really special group that I think has represented themselves, represented our institution, represented their families, represented each other very well.

"It's a group that's given it their all. We haven't always had success, but it's a group that all year fought for each other and cared about each other, and I'm proud to be associated with these guys."

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes.

Q. "Jason, did you have something going on with your finger? Is that recent? Were you wearing tape or something?"

JASON CLARK: "I was wearing tape, but my finger was fine. There was nothing wrong with it."

Q. "Henry, could you just talk about I guess what it must have felt like to have had the early fouls and been forced to watch so much of the game and been limited in what you could do to help your team?"

HENRY SIMS: "You know, like last game, I got two quick ones. But I wasn't honestly too concerned. Like I said, last game we have a group of guys that don't depend on me. They can handle themselves. So I wasn't too upset."

Q. "Jason, the last look, did you feel like it had a shot, or did you know it was off right away?"

JASON CLARK: "I mean, I felt like it had a shot. But it was off. We pushed the ball up the court, tried to get a last shot.I felt like it had a chance, but it didn't."

Q. "Jason, you guys had like an eight point lead. The tempo seemed to be going your way. Was there anything in particular that they did or that you did not do at that stage that kind of changed things around when they went on that 12 0 run?"

JASON CLARK: "They got a lot of open shots, some off of miscommunication and some tough shots, and then we started to turn the ball over. And when you turn the ball over against a team that's good in transition, that opens up a lot of baskets for them."

Q. "Seemed to be inconsistent calls on both sides. Did that disrupt the flow of the game for you guys, and was it hard to get into your offense because of that?"

JASON CLARK: "No, I don't think the calls had anything to do with it. It was they weren't calling it on either side. So we can't argue that.

"But, I mean, we just have to play through stuff like that.

Q. "And given all that's happened to you guys this season, including the brawl in China and being picked to finish 10th in the Big East, I know it's hard to right now, but can you assess Jason and Henry, your careers, at Georgetown?

JASON CLARK: Starting with this year, I think this is one of my favorite groups of guys that I was around my four years at Georgetown.

We weren't picked to do anything in the beginning of the season. Everybody doubted us. But as a group we believed in each other, and we proved a lot of people wrong. And I think we just we played our hearts out for each other this whole year.

Q. "Hollis, could you address, they had three players with 14points and another with 12 and another with nine. It's not like one player that you had to shut down; they had so many people that seemed to make plays at big times."

HOLLIS THOMPSON: "What's the question?"

Q. "Wonder if you could address the fact that they seemed to have such good balance with three guys with 14points and another with 12 and another with nine. And there wasn't just one guy you had to shut down; they had a many headed monster, it seemed like."

HOLLIS THOMPSON: They had several guys who could score.

Q. "Hollis, what did you make of NC State's defense? It seemed like they made it pretty hard to drive and penetrate. Was it what you expected, or were there any surprises in it?"

HOLLIS THOMPSON: "I mean, I think it was more or less what we expected. They kind of packed it in. Tried to make it difficult for us to get in the lane."

Q. "You shot 25 3 pointers for the game. Did you guys think you were relying on that too much and not getting into your offense enough?"

JASON CLARK: "Some of our shots, they were quick shots, but we have really good shooters on this team. Some of those shots were contested, but a lot of them were open. We didn't knock down more of the open ones that we could have.

"But we were relying on the three at one point, so we all talked about trying to get the ball into the post more."

THE MODERATOR: "Thank you. Questions for Coach."

Q. "How much did Henry being in foul trouble affect the flow of your offense?"

COACH THOMPSON III: "I think he answered that accurately. I mean, we are better when Henry's on the court, yes. But do we have other people that consistently all year have stepped up when he hasn't been on the court? The answer to that is yes also."

Q. "When things are going well for you for the first 15 minutes or so, you had momentum going. You had an eight point lead. Was there anything at that stage that they did or anything at all that started happening against you?"

COACH THOMPSON III: "Yeah, I think a couple things happened in that stretch. You know, one, we went into halftime, and I believe they had 10 offensive rebounds. I thought for the most part our defense was pretty good, they were just throwing it up and going and getting it and getting second and third shots and getting the rebounds, getting to the line.

"And I think once they started to do that, that gave them momentum a little bit. And then down at the other end of the court, you know, we had a stretch where I thought we were going through that we were trying to answer them phase, and we took some quick shots at the other end and made poor decisions at the offensive end while they were going through the stretch where they felt like they were getting every offensive rebound."

Q. "The last shot, obviously, it was a pretty good look. You must have been comfortable with that somewhat.

COACH THOMPSON III: "Yes. They missed a foul shot. We had the ball in one of our better shooter's hands. He got an open look. The ball didn't go in."

Q. "We asked the students this as well, but in the second half did you see opportunities to drive the ball more or, in other words, were you comfortable with that many 3s?"

COACH THOMPSON III: "I think Jason's I mean, sitting here now, he's all, yes, too many 3s. But we were getting good looks. And also we did get some penetration and we threw it down to many different people.

"I thought they did a good job of trying to protect the paint, and they didn't it appears that that was one of their goals, was to not let us get it in there. And when we did get it in, it was crowded. So kickouts were open. We had the right guys taking the shots; they just didn't go in as much as we would like."

Q. "John, what did you want out of the timeout with 24 seconds when Porter ended up shooting?

COACH THOMPSON III: "We wanted to go inside to Henry. And then they crowded out Leslie, who was guarding Otto, kind of sat in Henry's lap, and Henry kicked it right back out. And so we had a couple of shooters on the opposite side, I think, in case they came from that side. He kicked it back out to Otto.

"I thought Otto had an open look right there and didn't want to take it. That's fine. I'm comfortable with his decisions. Then he drove it and took a pull up, but we wanted to give it to Henry and get some movement off of that and let Henry make a decision whether he had something or whether he could kick it out to one of our open guys. He made the decision to kick it out.

"The guy was open. Ended up getting a decent shot. The ball just didn't go in."