North Georgia at Chattanooga
Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020
Chattanooga, Tenn. - McKenzie Arena
Postgame Quotes
 
Lamont Paris, Head Coach
Opening statement on the transfer announcement of David Jean-Baptiste.
"David Jean-Baptiste was not here today at the game. I was informed after our last game that Dave is going to explore the transfer portal. It came as a surprise to me with just how the year has gone, his decision to come back knowing that, in theory, was his last year of eligibility and then the fact that we have an undefeated team and he's playing the most minutes, shooting the most shots, and scoring the most points. It was a stunning decision to me to be completely honest. I don't know the complete reasons and when we talked it sounded like there's some non-basketball things that are certainly involved. That's it. It's pretty straight forward. We coach the guys who are here. I love the kid, but that's where he is in the current state."
 
On playing in these type of games.
"These games can be hard to play in, and when you get off to a fast start, you like being in that position, but even the most mature teams could have let downs in this scenario. These guys in their minds are always calculating how many points, how much we're up, how much time, and they're going to make decisions based on that as guys who are not as mature in ways of real winning. It's a good experience for us to do that. If there's one thing I want to coach every day, it's how to be up 26 and manage that. I wouldn't mind coaching that every day, but that's just not the reality. I thought the guys did a good job. I was happy, it was probably disguised, but I was happy particularly after the first half and things that we did and ultimately even in the last couple minutes when we got things back together."
 
On importance of getting players minutes.
"We were able to get some guys in there especially Prosper Obidiebube. He hasn't played since the first game after getting poked in the eye and just hasn't been the same guy since then being out for so long. I thought it was important for us to get him out there. He did a couple good things especially in that first stretch. He went out and got an offensive rebound, handled his defensive assignments really well, passed up an open three at the top of the key. That stuff is really important."
 
On learning from the failures and successes.
"I thought it was important for some of the failures we had in ball screen situations that involved our bigs. Those failures are important. That's why these games are important for us. If you can get in a situation where you can learn from failures, you learn more from failures than successes, at least that's what I learned in life. Having some failures not catastrophic enough that you end up not winning the game, those are great teaching tools and we'll get back to that on Monday."
 
On the growth of Jamaal Walker.
"Rapid is the first word that comes to my mind. His growth has been very rapid. I overheard him talking to some of our assistants about how difficult it was for him even three weeks ago to guard the ball. He's had a huge rise and his improvements that he has made has allowed him to get on the floor and stay on the floor. He has grown in every way. Attitude and from a confidence standpoint. It's hard to manufacture that in practice, but he's played a lot of minutes. If you want to get on the court, what we're doing has to be able to happen. It has to be able to function properly while you're out there and he's been doing that and playing well. It's fun to watch and it's great to see. He works really hard and a phenomenal kid, one of the best I've ever been around in that way."
 
On offensive style and how it's run.
"Our deal was by committee anyway. It's amazing when you look at just our last game [Bellarmine], Jamaal had five threes, AJ had five threes, we shot the ball well from three. It was all predicated upon plays that were made by one other person. We have, most times, five guys on the court that can provide some sort of scoring punch. I think we still have to establish a legit offensive threat around the basket. The way we play offense, we share the ball and make plays for others. That's what we're interested in doing. We're mainly trying to make plays for others. It's important for us to consistently get productivity out of a lot of different guys."

Stefan Kenic, Sr.-F
On the physical grind of the last week.
"It's pretty hard. If you look at this past week, we played four games. Four, five guys played 30 plus minutes and it's really exhausting. It's going to stay like that because we only have rotationally, eight players. It's important for our leaders to recover after the game, do treatments every day and get their bodies ready. It's going to stay this way."
 
On becoming a vocal leader.
"I'm one of the oldest guys here and I have to lead this team. Myself, Malachi [Smith], A.J. [Caldwell], we're the oldest guys here and we know what this program is about. We've had a great start and I'm trying to lead those guys. I'm always trying to talk to them and encourage them."
 
On the early play of Malachi Smith.
"Malachi has been a great addition for us this year. His defense is really good and offensively, he can make shots, get to the rim, get to the free throw line. One of the best things he does is rebounding. We're going to need that the whole year."
 
Malachi Smith, RS-So.-G
On the key to early season success.
"Just my teammates getting me in good positions and running our offense. I think it's knowing when to be aggressive. With me sitting out, I made sure I put a lot of work into my game and get comfortable with the team even though I wasn't playing."
 
On playing style.
"Anything to win. Whatever it takes to win. Just doing whatever it takes for my team to win both offensively and defensively."
 
On what the last stretch of games can teach moving forward.
"I think it'll help us with experience. These last four games we won in different ways. We won shooting the ball well, not shooting the ball well, we won close and we won big. Experience is the best teacher so down the line, we can say that we've been in all different scenarios and we can count on that to win tough games."
 
On the team coming together.
"It's going to take the entire team but still making sure we're confident in ourselves. We know one person doesn't define the team, it's not just me or Stef [Kenic], we're going to need everyone to step up and they're capable of that. We have all the faith and confidence to step up at any point in time. I think we'll be fine."