Story Links

Recap | Box Score

VIRGINIA COACH Pete Gillen

“Arizona didn’t beat us on Sunday, they almost beat us on Wednesday. We were not the same team tonight, as we didn’t play with that fire. You have to give Appalachian State a lot of credit, they played hard and they are well coached. The key to the game, in my opinion, was 30-30 at the half. We could have easily been down seven or eight points. We’re fortunate to win by 17. I blame myself and I blame the seniors. Seniors have to get themselves ready and invest in the team-players listen to players. It was a dangerous game, our guys weren’t ready emotionally, but good teams have to play every night.”

“We couldn’t tell the intensity was lacking. We didn’t go long on Monday and yesterday’s practice was pretty good. During warm-ups this evening, one of our coaches noticed that the team was lacking energy. We weren’t making our shots in the first half, but if you don’t play hard, you don’t get breaks. We have to play a lot better on Sunday against Richmond.”

Sean Singletary didn’t have his best game tonight. T.J. Bannister played really well tonight. They are both very talented players and we need both as point guards.”

Devin Smith was drained from Sunday’s game and had no legs. That’s going to happen some nights. He did a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score.”

“We didn’t attack the zone. We just passed around the zone and we weren’t aggressive. We couldn’t make a shot. We had three shots go in and out. We have to do a better job playing against the zone. They did a nice job mixing it up and kept us out of our rhythm.”

APPALACHIAN STATE HEAD COACH HOUSTON FANCHER

“We felt like Elton Brown wasn’t the only weapon Virginia had. The other four players on the floor are weapons as well. We had to mix some defenses up so they wouldn’t get into a comfort zone.”

“We didn’t score. During the first five minutes of the second half, we didn’t score. Virginia made a couple of buckets to start the second half and I think we panicked a little bit. We took some quick shots and fueled their fire a little bit and got them going in transition. During the first half, we made them guard us and we took a lot of shots late in the clock.”

“If we would have done a better job from the free-throw line, we could have had a lead at halftime. We were three of nine from the line.”

“In the second half Virginia went out and built a lead that we didn’t respond to.”

Elton Brown was more efficient in the second half in finishing the play. They outscored us 24-6 from the free-throw line. If you get Elton Brown one-on-one in the post, he can score on anyone in the country. Our players have called him Elton Brand all week. He’s a talented player-if he’s 250, then I’m 340. He’s more than 250 and a big body down there. It’s hard to get around him down there. He’s really skilled. He doesn’t have much lift, I don’t think he could jump over the phone book, but he can finish over anyone down there.”

“Virginia is the sleeper team in the ACC. They have a good balance with good peripheral play and good point guard play. They will be a factor in the ACC this year.”

Print Friendly Version