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Postgame Quotes
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Dec. 22, 2003
Virginia Coach Pete Gillen
This was a dangerous game for us. Third game in seven days, and goingcoast-to-coast took a toll on us. I think we were a half step slow tonight, but ourkids dug down and made the right plays. But give Coastal Carolina credit, asthey are a very good team. They played hard and are well coached. We did a goodjob on Brandon Newby, he’s getting about 15 or 16 points a game. And E. J.Gallup had 17 points, but I thought we made him earn them.
We need to turn up the intensity three notches before getting into the ACCseason. It’s going to be a tough game against N.C. State on Sunday. Then we haveIowa State and Providence.
When we were down right before the half, we just defended better and T.J.Bannister gave us a lift. He put pressure on the ball and makes the other pointguard work. He does a lot of intangible things. We turned up the defense andmade some shots. We got Todd Billet off the ball and when he’s not running thepoint, he’s able to make shots.
Coastal Carolina Coach Pete Strickland
We can’t let Elton Brown shoot 80 percent. It was a wrestling match in there.We had four centers that we threw at him and he got the better of us. Ithought he would get plenty of touches and I thought he would score, but I hopedthat we would keep his percentage down. Virginia does a nice job of looking forhim–he’s a nice anchor to have.
On playing three games in five days
This time of year, the guys really don’t want to practice, they just want toplay. I don’t think the back-to-back-to-back games had a real effect on us. Wehad a little more depth than they had, so we really didn’t get tired tonight.
Derrick Byars hurt us. The stats indicated that he would go for the threepointer, but he got some inside shots that kind of broke our back a little bit.He also got six offensive rebounds and hit several free throws.