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Jan. 29, 2005
UNIVERSITY HALL
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA
VIRGINIA HEAD COACH Pete Gillen
North Carolina has a great team and they had a great day today. We didn’t play with energy and seemed hesitant and tentative. It’s a fact that playing Thursday night against Virginia Tech took a lot out of us. That’s no excuse, it’s a fact. I was disappointed that we didn’t play with aggressiveness and energy early. I think the combination of losing some games and the quick turnaround hurt us.
Devin Smith didn’t have the legs today and Elton Brown didn’t play up to his capabilities. When our two seniors don’t play solid it’s going to be difficult for us.
Sean Singletary played well tonight. He did a great job coming back from his sprained ankle and did an excellent job playing against Raymond Felton. He’s still learning and hopefully the second half of league play he’ll get better.
We have to talk to the team and be positive. This is one game. It was a terrible game and we played poorly, but we have to play with courage. We’re a lot better than the way we played tonight.
We are half way through the conference play and we’re 1-7 and we still have nine games to play and hopefully we will do better. I think we will.
NORTH CAROLINA HEAD COACH ROY WILLIAMS
We have to understand some things. We had a full week to prepare, and Virginia had a pretty short turnaround. That was a big factor in the game. We were much more fresh than they were.
We played pretty doggone well. To score 62 in the first half and not have two of our starters scratch, that means guys came off the bench and gave us some help there. We made great decisions on the break. We talked a lot all week about not turning the ball over but getting shots and just making the easiest play available, and I think we did that in the first half.
We defended, we boxed out, we didn’t give up too many second shot opportunities, and we got very good inside shots and open threes. And guys for the most part made their open threes. When you play that well, it’s very satisfying, but it’s just one win, and we understand that.