Story Links
Nov. 22, 2006
Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao
On Virginia’s play tonight…
“Obviously I’m not real pleased with what I saw out there. Just continue to know that we have a lot of work to do and a short time to do it in. We continue to let up and allow teams to be the aggressor and as a result we gave up 42 second half easy points after we came out and tried to establish a defensive mind set. It just continues to let me know that we have a lot of work to do.”
On UNC Asheville’s defensive sets…
“We struggle with our aggression. Whatever they ran, no disrespect to Eddie and his group, but we were back on our heels with most everything we did. It could have been man, zone, three-quarter court, full-court pressure, whatever it was, we just played back on our heels.”
On taking the early 12-0 lead and then allowing UNCA to get within eight…
“Good teams don’t do that. They take it possession by possession. If you’re up 12-0, you go from there and if another team makes a run you respond. Somewhere over the course of 40 minutes you impose your will. We’ve done it for a few minutes at the beginning of games, but have not sustained it two games in a row.”
UNC Ashville Head Coach Eddie Biedenbach
On tonight’s game…
“I appreciate Virginia putting us on the schedule to come up here and play. This is a good game for us. As we go through our schedule, each game gets tougher and tougher as we go. Our guys have responded and gotten better. Our record doesn’t show it because we’re growing as a team right now. I thought we played competitively. We cut it down to eight, and had a chance there, but Virginia is very organized and has great experience and great composure at their guard spot and we weren’t able to take enough advantage inside to put the game in jeopardy for them. They are a good basketball team–they showed that against Arizona. They showed what kind of team they can be.”
On the future of UNC Asheville…
“I think we’ll be a good team pretty soon here. We made too many mistakes–technical mistakes–shot selection and turnovers caused by individual play. We’ll be a better team than that. We’re a pretty good team in our hearts and in our heads, but we don’t play well enough as a team yet. These guys are showing me something and eventually we’ll be a good team.”
Virginia Player Quotes
#2 senior guard J.R. Reynolds
On getting into a shooting rhythm…
“I’m getting back into that rhythm again. A couple of shots fell down kind of early, but I did miss some easy shots that I normally knock down. However, overall, I feel like I am getting back into that groove and getting back my confidence. We got a nice win tonight.”
On his eye…
“My eye is doing great. It’s getting better each and every day. My vision is much clearer now and I am starting to see better.”
On UNC Asheville’s run towards the end of the game…
“We got a little relaxed in a game like this, which is something that we have to work on in order to become a great team. Coach (Leitao) tells us we have to step on the gas pedal for 40 minutes. Once we relaxed, they kind of took advantage of us not doing that.”
#44 junior guard Sean Singletary
On free throw shooting…
“It’s something that I aways continue to work on. Especially, when I was out recovering from surgery this summer. I couldn’t do much so I continued to work on my form.”
On playing final home game before first road trip…
“We’re still working to pull it all together. We still have to get our chemistry right. We’ll continue to work on that for Sunday’s game. It’s always tough on the road no matter who you play so we’re just going to keep working to get better.”
UNC Ashville Players Quotes
#11 Freshman Guard Donovan Jones
On his individual performance tonight…
“We’ve got a few guys out hurt right now and we needed some guys to step up. I just decided it was going to be me. Coach has emphasized that we’re going to need some other guys to step up, so I just went out there and played my heart out. “
What can you all as a team take away from your performance here tonight…
“We’ve lost two tough games against teams from some of the top conferences in the nation already this year, so we’re starting to see we can compete with anyone in the country. If we progress from where we are right now I think we can do some good things this year.”
#10 Junior Guard Bryan Smithson
On his performance individually tonight…
“I just wanted to come out there and stay strong. Individually I wanted to get my teammates involved and hit open shots. We started to make some shots in the second half. If we could have gotten off to a quicker start we probably would have been a little better off at the end.”
On how the team performed this evening…
“We dug ourselves a hole early but we’re getting better. We came together as a team there towards the end of the game. It’s a success in a way and we can take a moral victory from it. Virginia is a tournament team and we’re looking forward to playing a team of that caliber in the first round.”
How can you all build off of this game heading into conference play?
“I think we can take a lot of positives from this into conference play. Virginia is a championship caliber team. In our conference, the winner has to be able to compete with teams like this. I think we were able to compete with them the last couple of minutes. Hopefully this experience will help us win a championship in our conference.”