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March 16, 2001
The Virginia locker room was very somber following today’s 86-85 loss to Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. A collection of post-game comments from head coach Pete Gillen, junior forward Chris Williams, and senior guard Donald Hand follows:
“I thought it was a tremendous basketball game. I’m very proud of our team. I thought we did a great job. We had a lot of adversity with Travis Watson, one of our top players, getting in severe foul trouble. He only played six minutes I think in the first half. Most people picked us to lose, but we were winners today. Both teams were winners, but they just made a play and time ran out. Maybe another minute or so and we might have had it. It’s a 40 minute game and I want to congratulate Gonzaga.” – Pete Gillen
“I think we were real aggressive on the offensive end. We just had a couple of shots, a couple of layups that were right there that just happened to just bounce off the rim. You have to give credit to them. They were playing tough defense, we just happened to miss.” – Chris Williams
“It’s been a great career for me ever since coach Gillen took over the staff. But we wanted to win the game tonight. We just took another step in the right direction to where Virginia basketball is here now and for the future. So hopefully it continues. I’m going to be cheering for those guys next year. I just had a nice time ever since coach Gillen took over the staff.” – Donald Hand
“It’s tough. All year, you work hard. You play through injuries. You play through everything and to come up short in the tournament – it’s devastating. But you have to give credit to Gonzaga. They played a great game.” – Chris Williams
“Travis got in foul trouble. We were a little out of sync, but we kept our poise. We showed, I thought, a lot of character coming back. I thought we showed good resiliency so I was proud of our effort. But we did get frustrated, but they’re a tremendous team. Gonzaga’s certainly a lot better than a 12 seed.” – Pete Gillen
“I thought J.C. was tremendous both halves. He did a lot of things that didn’t show up in the box score – interior defense, which is one of our weaknesses, rebounding, contesting a shot, playing physical. I thought he was tremendous, J.C Mathis.” – Pete Gillen
“I thought with an open court we’d have a better chance with eight seconds. We thought of it. I knew we had one left and I just thought with Roger going to the basket we had a better chance rather than have their defense set where they can switch on all screens. So I did think of it, but I thought we got a pretty good drive. He got in close to the basket. There was some contact, but not enough to probably call a foul, but I thought he got a pretty good shot.” – Pete Gillen on his decision to not call a timeout after Gonzaga’s eventual game-winning basket.
“We tried to get the ball to Roger. Roger was on fire. Offensively, we wanted him to handle the ball, Roger Mason. He’s taken big shots for us. He’s made big shots for us.” – Pete Gillen
“It’s true, we’ve got to change it. The Georgia Tech game came down to the last minute. We’re up one with 1:45 to go if I’m not mistaken. They hit a three. We’re close. We’ve just got to dig down a little bit more. I thought we got our guys to play well and to win 20 games. So we just have to look at it, evaluate it, and try to improve. We’ve got to get bigger and stronger. We’ve got to get more power. Everybody we play is bigger and stronger than us. So we need more bodies. We’ve got terrific players, but we need more of them and we need more size.” – Pete Gillen on the lack of Virginia’s post-season success.
“We won 20 games. We beat everybody in the conference but Georgia Tech. We beat some great teams. We’ve gotten better. In our first year, we won 14, last year 19, this year 20. So I don’t know how this team will be remembered. But we got to the NCAA Tournament which is not easy to do in a great conference when you know Duke, North Carolina, and Maryland are going to go every year. So I’m proud of our step up. Now the question is are we going to continue to step up, or stay the same, or step back? I think we’re going to continue to step-up.” – Pete Gillen