Fox seeking improvements in consistency, defense
Georgia hasn't had much time to think back on its loss to Massachusetts.
While the 72-62 defeat was tough to take, the Bulldogs have been forced to quickly look ahead to Tuesday's opponent, rival Georgia Tech. This is the annual non-conference game the Bulldogs always look forward to playing, and is one Georgia won't want to drop on its home floor.
Given the way Georgia lost to the Minutemen, head coach Mark Fox took a few questions regarding the previous game during his media availability Monday.
While it was only a 10-point defeat, Georgia was never in position to seize control of the game, as Massachusetts held a big lead from start to finish. Fox expressed his disappointment in the team's performance while acknowledging swift improvement is needed with Georgia Tech up next.
On bouncing back from the UMass loss: "I think I put our players in a terrible position by taking them on the road after an 11-day break. I don't think that was wise scheduling on my part. At the same time, we have to play better. We obviously showed a little rust when the game started and eventually started to look like ourselves — I'm not sure we ever did — but we've come back with a good approach to try and get back to playing complete basketball. We're going to have to as we move forward."
On Rayshaun Hammonds taking only one shot against Massachusetts: "I don't think anyone played well Saturday. He didn't, obviously, get a lot done on the offensive end. I'll give him credit for this — Rayshaun has a very high IQ. I think he tries to make plays that are there. I think as a freshman he is cautious to go try and create his own because he's smart enough to know there are other options available. I think the more and more he gets comfortable, and the more and more he learns to read defenses at this level, I think you'll see him be more and more aggressive. How quickly that happens, time will tell."
On Georgia finding its form again: "We have to get back to playing like we were playing two weeks ago. The break did not serve us well. We have to fight through that and get back to playing like we were two weeks ago because we need to. We have a lot of good teams in front of us."
On what Georgia needs to improve the most in: "We haven't defended. It starts there. We haven't defended to the level that we need to. We didn't rebound it like we needed to the other day. I thought offensively, we played extremely soft. We didn't execute to our satisfaction. I just don't think that we've stayed at the consistency level we want. We were there before and we can get back there. It's going to take a little hard work."
This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 10:12 PM with the headline "Fox seeking improvements in consistency, defense."