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Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner after the unbeaten Jackets won at #UNC
Dec 15, 2024
Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner after the unbeaten Jackets won at #UNC
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0:03
prob I'm really proud of how my team
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played to come in to your opening ACC
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Game of the Year at number 14 North
0:13
Carolina and play as hard as we did
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and and at times as undersized as we are
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I'm really super proud of of this team
0:23
and and their effort and their disc
0:26
continued playing together and their
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coachability just really really
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proud of them it was what a game I mean
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I I didn't think we would get that a
0:35
lead like we did and North Carolina
0:37
surely wasn't going to go away and they
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didn't they were tough I'm just glad the
0:40
clock ran out because they were um they
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were coming at us really hard in the
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fourth quarter but we hung tough and we
0:47
get the win we'll open the floor for
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questions can you just raise your hand
0:52
coach uh you had another great game from
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from Danny har and a couple other
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players first but I wanted to start with
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her cuz you know she's aesh
1:00
people didn't know about her coming into
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this season but she's kind of L A fire
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for you guys and certainly in that first
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half really helped you yeah she's a
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really um she's just such a highly
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skilled offensive player that is um has
1:14
a great feel for the game really high
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basketball IQ and um has just really
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just bought into everything that we're
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doing how we culture things we're doing
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and running and um she's really a fun
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kid to coach but that whole freshman
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class even though two of them didn't
1:30
play today that the Four Freshman have
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really brought a lot to the table for us
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um and then to to go along with the
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veterans that were back and they've been
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difference
1:40
making what about the rebounding you you
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rebounded about a third of your business
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that that seem like that was a key there
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were there's no doubt that was
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definitely a key and you you have to
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give a big shout out to cayb blacksher
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from for that because I'll just go ahead
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and throw that I think she's one of the
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best undersized post players in the
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country I really do she just refuses to
2:01
be denied on either end of the floor but
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she just brings a physical presence for
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us um that's really really strong and
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she did that today even though we didn't
2:11
have an answer for gock dang I mean you
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know she was she was really um really
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really good so we've got to if we play
2:17
them again we got to figure out a better
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way to guard her was particular you're
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doing with us be it's her second career
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game without a field yeah that that's
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really hard to believe you know I mean I
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don't know if I has she
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that's happened to her before once her
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freshman year oh her freshman year oh my
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gosh yeah because I I think she's a
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really a heck of a player so um then
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then I guess our defense is pretty good
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today on her I mean but that's yeah
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that's hard to believe I didn't realize
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that actually so I'm just here looking
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at
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it um coach I think my math is right
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this is the first time you guys have won
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in Chapel hille since like
2:54
2012 um you're you're 12 on the season
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yeah that's
3:02
so yeah yeah it's not an easy place it's
3:04
hard to win on the road especially when
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you're playing against a team is
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talented as a I mean you know that's
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that's just it's tough you're 12 and0 on
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the season I think it's your start WE 12
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or 11 11 and0 yeah since like the mid
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70s or something um for the players that
3:19
have been with you a couple years you
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know Tony Cara and Kayla um to see this
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success this early in the season how
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much does that mean to to your team and
3:28
to them well it means a lot especially
3:30
in the day in this day and age of where
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we are with um transfer portal and all
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that stuff you know I mean you know the
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last two years have been tough on us you
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know we've been it's been hard but but
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Tony Morgan and Cara Dunn drew the Line
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in the Sand and said no we're doing it
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here we are we're staying at Georgia
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Tech we believe in this coaching staff
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and we're doing it here I mean they said
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those words I mean it's so um and it's
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you know it's hopefully paying off for
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them you know in that regard because
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they've got high goals and everybody is
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they've been good leaders in all of our
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offseason work and um hopefully we
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continue to see the the payoff of that
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coach you mentioned um it's a tough
4:09
place to play but you could hear
4:10
chitchat rights family oh my gosh the
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court how many people did you have here
4:14
I think we had about 40 people here I
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actually I think that's what our ticket
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so we like 40 or 50 people here because
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there's some relatives in the in the you
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know in the area and all that stuff so
4:24
yeah it was a we had a a good strong
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loud crowd we'll take that follow up to
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that I know this is the question coaches
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like to answer do you think your team is
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getting enough attention and you know
4:35
what I don't even think about that I
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mean you always want to get attention
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there's no question but I've got more
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more things to worry about than
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that coming to tonight um CH Hill was
4:46
top six in the defensive scoring how do
4:49
you feel like you dictated the pace
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early you feel like you played a little
4:52
bit faster than Carolina yeah I think
4:55
you know that's something that we like
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to do we like to play at a faster Pace
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we like to push that tempo we have
5:00
players that like to play that way so
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that helps a lot too but we um that was
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a you know it's a concerted um style of
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play for us and and hopefully we can
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keep doing
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it that like continuing to respond even
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when Carolina
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kept responding how do you think
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especially like Morgan and sort of like
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were able to um continue to dictate the
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pace
5:30
yeah I mean they really turned up the
5:32
pressure there in the fourth quarter
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that was extremely disruptive we turned
5:35
the ball over I mean we really shot
5:37
ourselves in the foot couple of times in
5:39
a row missed a layup missed you know it
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was like so yeah it got a little tight
5:44
it got a little tense but you've got
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Tony Morgan who's got experience under
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her belt you got Danny Carnegie again
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has a high basketball IQ so putting the
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ball in their hands I trust it I really
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I have a lot of trust in that and U and
5:57
it paid off for us in the end
6:00
you touched on um just usby um a little
6:03
bit earlier but what do you think it was
6:05
specifically about um y'all's defense
6:07
that may be able to push her out keep
6:09
her out cber conf yeah I think our
6:10
pressure I think you know we've we we
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believe in our defense and and I think
6:15
our pressure was really really tough um
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she didn't see a lot of uh daylight to
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the basket you know like she's really
6:22
effective she can put it on the floor
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and drive and scoop and do all that kind
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of stuff and I think we just really did
6:28
a good job keeping her away from that
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and um yeah we'll do one or two more
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coach you mentioned how you all are been
6:36
under siiz um you this season you're
6:39
taking and making more three bers than
6:41
you have in a while is that kind of your
6:43
way of I don't know building a different
6:44
Maps trap to to kind of you know have
6:47
success in this league you know I think
6:49
no what it is is we've got the players
6:51
who can play that way we've got the
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shooters who can shoot it we've got
6:54
athletes who can drive it so we're just
6:56
kind of you know we decided this is how
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we want to play so that's how we were
6:59
approved
7:00
and and it's a it's a fun style of play
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I mean it's it's it's something that um
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it suits these players that we have so
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um we'll see if we can keep having
7:11
Success With
7:12
It final question from
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anyone thanks y
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