| | Wednesday, March 8
I think this tournament will be very emotional, especially for the seniors.
Every time we step out there, it's the chance that it is our last game.
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Inside the Locker Room
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Throughout Championship Week, ESPN.com and FANSonly.com are presenting an inside look into the ACC tournament from some of the league's top players, including Jason Collier of Georgia Tech. For more on the ACC, visit the conference's official web site.
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For me personally, it's emotional because I have a special tie with coach
Cremins. I have known him for some time now, and with him being somewhat
like a second father for me, it's sad to see him go -- especially if it were
on a bad note.
We don't want to see coach Cremins go out on a bad note, so I think it's
more of a motivational thing for us than a distraction. Plus, with me being
a senior it is important to me personally for us to go as far we can this
year.
It seems like he (Cremins) is carrying a lot less weight around with him, he
is smiling a lot more, he looks a lot better, and I think he is feeling
better. He still wants to win more than ever in this tournament, but the
pressure is kind of off of him. He is still going to coach hard, and he
wants to win this thing one more time, so it would be special to go far this
week.
I think he will coach again -- where, I have no idea. Whether it will
be in college or pro, I really don't know. I could see him after a couple
years of maybe relaxing a little bit, maybe going into the pro ranks as an
assistant coach. Or, if he wants to try it in college again someday, who
knows maybe he will end up at South Carolina someday.
As far as the future at Georgia Tech -- for me personally, I haven't worried
much about it or listened to what's being said. I hope they get a good coach
in here because all of my friends will still be playing on this team, and I
want to see them have a good college career. They need to bring in someone
that can help them out and teach them as much as coach Cremins could.
As far as this season's difficulties, I think it was really hard when Dion
(Glover) went out with the knee injury at the beginning of last season. Also, (it hurt) when Al Harrington went pro, because we had heard that we were supposed to get him. I think that really hurt coach Cremins' recruiting scheme, and
that may have thrown things off for a couple years. Then when Dion decided
not to come back this year, that was a tough decision. It was a decision he
had to make as an individual and I think he did it more for his family, but
it hurt us.
But we can do well this week. We did beat everybody in our bracket this season. If you
look at it that way, we got a pretty good draw -- probably the best draw
possible. I think we got a shot, but we do need to play four games in four
days. It's not impossible but we need to play our best basketball with the
least amount of energy possible per game to have a chance to get to Sunday.
Against Florida State on Thursday, controlling the perimeter is the key.
They are a very perimeter-oriented team with (Delvon) Arrington and (Ron) Hale and
(Damous) Anderson. For us to stay in the game we need to keep those guys from getting
wide open looks and keep Arrington from driving. We just need to buckle down on
the perimeter defense.
Here in the ACC, it's like a whole new season right now, a whole new chance
to do something special: make your way into the NCAA tournament. All you
need to do is win three or four games and it can change your whole season.
I definitely think we (the ACC) have had a lot of criticism around the nation
this year, but the last couple years before this we have been very good. So
compared to that, I personally think it is down this year. We still have
very good players and the games are tight and very emotional, so it's kind
of a shame that people see it as being a bad year. We don't have the
superstars like Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter or even going back to guys like
Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner -- you just don't have a whole lot of those type players
right now and that's the only thing most of the nation sees.
As far as my college career, I have no regrets, not at all. I only wish we
would have won some more games. I mean, you can't look at it just as wins
and losses, but more of what you learned over your college career. I was
fortunate enough to learn a whole lot, and, uh, from two great coaches. So,
the only thing I would change would be more wins and fewer losses.
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