George Washington University

Nov. 26, 2005

Recap |  Box Score

NCAA Basketball
Nov. 26, 2005

Norfolk St. 69
at No. 21/22 George Washington 80

Norfolk State Coach Dwight Freeman
"The guys played hard. We always play hard and we played hard down in the Virgin Islands. We're just not finishing games or finishing plays...missed layups. We cut it down to eight and we had four turnovers out of our next five possessions, just little things that we have to try to get better at to make sure that we have an opportunity to win games."

I thought the guys did a good job of focusing on rebounding the ball and attacking the glass. One of the things we talked about with George Washington is that they are a tremendous offensive rebounding team and we have to make sure we make a concerted effort to keep them off the glass and I think our guys did a good job of that."

Twenty-three turnovers, not finishing plays on the inside here and there, I think, cost us the game.

"I think Karl and his staff have done a tremendous job of recruiting. They have recruited a lot of 'like' young men: long, athletic 6-5, 6-8, somewhere in that range. They all can put it on the floor, they all can attack the basket and when they start getting into that 1-3-1, that's probably 40 feet of arms they have out there, they cover a lot of space. It's one thing to have athletic guys as opposed to plodders and I don't think they really have any plodders. Those guys might be 6-8, 6-9 but if you put them on a track, I think they'd outrun a lot of 6-2 people."

Norfolk State sophomore G Tony Murphy
"We knew they were a good team and athletic. We wanted to come in and play hard and leave it all out. The next game against Towson at home, we just gotta concentrate and finish the game out."

Norfolk State senior G Keith Young
"It would have felt a lot better if we had gotten the win but I've seen some improvement with this team. I think we could have lessened the turnovers but we'll go back to the drawing board and play better against Towson."

GW coach Karl Hobbs
"At times, when we get up on a team, we tend to relax and that's been consistent with us. That's something that we have to work very, very hard to try to change that.

On Norfolk State:
"I thought they were well-prepared. I thought they changed up defenses and never let us get into a comfortable rythmn. They did a great job of scouting us...they were really prepared and really game-ready."

"When we were running our sets, they knew where the cuts were and they were talking and helping each other out and they've got some good physical strength in the middle."

"I thought that our defense just wasn't consistent enough. We played great defense for three possessions in a row and then we'd give up a layup. I think it was around the 3:39 mark when Montrell [McDonald] stole the ball and I think that put the game away a little bit but, up until that point, they were pretty much in the game."

On Montrell McDonald:
"I think his athleticism allows him to be more effective. It allows him to get out on the break, he handles the ball well and does a terrific job defensively and he takes good shots. He takes the shots that he can make. He selects shots and I love that about him."

Junior G Danilo (J.R.) Pinnock:
"Norfolk State played a great game. They didn't back down from us and they came out and were playing to win. They have some guys who can really shoot the ball. They stayed within their game and I think they executed real nicely."

"We have to step it up in rebounding and defense in the absence of our big man, but in terms of scoring, no, because anybody on the floor can score. As far as defense and rebounding, me and Mike Hall have taken that upon ourselves to try and step it up."