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Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao
Opening remarks:
“With Sean (Singletary), you are saying goodbye to, after 24 years of coaching, one of the greatest young people that I have ever met, and that is hard, very hard to swallow because in a hundred years you may never see that again. To see your seniors, the four of them, have to say goodbye, you feel bad for them because as a young person you think there is never an end to it, and now that you are here, you have to understand that as a young guy, and that is a cruel thing. You saw it last night unfortunately with Coach Ryan’s group, and Sharnee (Zoll) having to have her career come to an end very unfortunately. The other part of it is that you immediately start to prepare and somewhere along the line this year with 17 really good nights and 16 very bad nights, you realize there is a lot you have to do to make this program better. If you watch closely when a coach takes over a program, for the most part, there is a cleaning out process. Normally, you do not see a number of guys who were part of the program a year or two later, and most of the guys who were around when I got here are still here. I was very fortunate to be blessed with really good people who wanted to work really hard. Sean was the lead person in that and J.R. (Reynolds) obviously. What I decided to do was ride that as long and as far as I could, and somewhere at the earlier stages of the season you realize that when you take over a program you have to start rebuilding it. You could not call it a rebuiling project with the likes of Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds and guys like that around; you have to ride that. Part of the season was the beginning of that, and now we have to take the spring and the summer to put some things in place for the younger guys that allowed everybody else three years ago to begin to move forward, so that is what we will do.”
On Jeff Jones:
“Over the course of the tail end of the season, as I have said about Jeff (Jones), one of the reasons that I kept him in the starting lineup and was giving him opportunities is because I have seen, that is why I recruited him and that is why I started him, that he has potential to be a good player, along with some of the other guys. Now this growth has to happen from him because I cannot help but think, although he played great today, that there is much more there that we have to bring out, and not just in him but in everybody.”
In response to Bradley guard Jeremy Crouch’s remark about how Bradley’s use of three guards was able to throw off the Virginia defense:
“The reality of it is, and I respect what he (Bradley guard Jeremy Crouch) said, is that if you look at the statistics, every offense has given us trouble. Our defensive presence and attitude has not been there with any level of consistency. You could have played that offense that he is talking about, or we just played three different offenses. Richmond’s offense shot at or around 50 percent, Old Dominion’s offense shot 50 percent, and Bradley shot 48 percent. With all do respect to him, I think that we caused a lot of that.”
Bradley Head Coach Jim Les
On the 13-0 run that brought the team back into the game:
“Part of what we were doing because Daniel [Ruffin] had two fouls was we went to the zone. I think early on they hit some shots, but in order to protect Daniel and because [Sean] Singletary is so good and they were trying to isolate him, we stuck with the zone. I think they went through a cold spell and we did some very good things with rebounding the basketball. We got out there and ran and moved and drove the ball.”
On the importance of the three-point shot and the team’s ability to cope when the shots weren’t falling in the first half:
“Jeremy [Crouch] is a great example. He doesn’t hit some shots that he normally hits in the first half. We’ve got a lot of confidence in him, his teammates do, and he knows better than to stop shooting because eventually the law of averages is going to come about. I think he went through a stretch and went five-for-five. That’s what this team is made of. They are resilient and they’ve got a lot of confidence and for them to come on the road and get this win I think is a great testament to how much they’ve endured this season.”
On Bradley’s offensive spurt in the second half:
“Early on I didn’t like our body language and we stuck with the zone early in the first half. I just didn’t think we had great body language and I thought the game was there to be had. We’re a team of runs and we just talked about some activity defensively and looking to make plays. Even though we are in zone, we still want to contain the basketball, guard the ball, anticipate and make some plays, and get some deflections, which would get us out running. I thought our guys did a great job getting their hands on balls and also limiting them [Virginia] to one shot.”
Virginia Senior Point Guard Sean Singletary
On getting eliminated:
“It would have been nice to win the tournament, but you can’t dwell in the past, whether good or bad. It’s good to have memories, but there always comes a time to move on.”
On the first half:
“Anytime you come out with a lot of energy, you get optimistic about what’s going to happen in the game, but unfortunately, we didn’t sustain our energy. They came back and threw a couple of punches of their own and we didn’t respond well.”
On playing in the CBI:
“It’s disappointing every time you don’t get to play in the NCAA Tournament. As it were, something new came up, and it gave us the opportunity to play again. It’s a privilege and an opportunity for us to show the fans our appreciation.”
On his performance tonight:
“I was off. I couldn’t get anything to go, and tried to get to the basket. I struggled, but a couple of other guys picked up the slack a little bit. They played physical, but I’m used to that in the ACC. I just couldn’t get anything to go today. Sometimes that happens.”
On how the team will be without him next year:
“The guys that we have next year know how to work hard and fight for everything they get. They’ll have some time off to get a little rest and then get back into the gym. I’m sure they’ll be successful next year. It’s not going to be pretty every night, but they’ll get the job done.”
Virginia Freshman Guard Jeff Jones
On Bradley’s offense:
“The scouting report on them was that they were all great shooters, and when they’re down, whether it’s by 10 or by 20, they’re going to come back. Coach Leitao preached that they have the ability to come back based on the great three-point shooters they have.”
On his performance tonight and how he hopes to perform next year:
“The hard work pays off. My first year was a whole bunch of ups and downs, but the main thing that I have to do is stay focused and be committed and keep working hard. You’re always going to have ups and downsnot everybody is Michael Jordan or LeBron James. I’m just going to stay focused.”
On playing in the CBI:
“Coach is a competitor. A lot of teams backed out of this tournament, but coach preaches and teaches that if a challenge comes your way, you go after it. He wants all of us to be competitors and play every game as if it were our last.”
Bradley Senior Guard Jeremy Crouch
On his thoughts at the half:
“Well I went in and washed my hands and tried to let it all go. Coach has always had a lot of confidence in me and in our guards. I got some pretty good looks to get me going Matt [Salley] got two big plays that really got me going: he got a rebound and he got me a wide-open, in-rhythm three.”
Do you always wash your hands at the half?
“No, I just did not shoot it very well so I wanted to clean it all off and start fresh.”
On using the drive as well as the three-point shot:
“They did a lot of switching, and they got some bigs on us, and this offense is so much fun to play in. It is a match-up nightmare for some teams. When teams switch it puts a lot of pressure on some bigs to do some things that maybe they are not normally accustomed to doing, and coach has a lot of confidence in our guards to make plays. We take what the defense gives us and that has been a focus for us all year; playing solid on both ends of the floor.”
On his personal thoughts on the win:
“It means a lot [to come on the road and win in an ACC arena], and mostly that I can put this jersey on again. I can go home and play again at the Civic Center. Any time you can get this opportunity the ACC is a great conference, this is a great school and a great team so we had a lot of respect for Virginia coming into this game. We were looking forward to this one and having some fun tonight.”