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VIRGINIA BASKETBALL
Postgame Quotes
Liberty 86, Virginia 82
Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao
Opening Statement:
“I thought that Ritchie [McKay] and his guys did a good job of spreading us out and keeping us back on our heels and running a five-man perimeter offense really well. Congratulations to him and his team. On our side, we lost the game before today even started. We have been flirting with disaster or losses for a while now and the ball fortunately bounced our way a couple of times. We were fortunate enough to win the last couple games. It didn’t bounce our way this time, so we weren’t [fortunate enough to win tonight]. We’ve got to figure ourselves out, begin to start to play the game with some passion and energy, and have some fun, and understand one another, our strengths and our weaknesses. It has handicapped their minds and as a result, the reactions and the feet are slower and that makes us late for everything we do and makes us look like we are not in sync. We’ve got to figure that out before we move forward at any point to get better for the remainder of the games this year.”
On choosing not to go with a big lineup:
“It would be an advantage if you made them pay on your offensive end. Unfortunately, [our big guys], John [Brandenburg], Assane [Sene], or Tunji [Soroye] aren’t natural scorers yet, so it’s hard to take a size advantage when you can’t put the ball in the basket that way. It becomes a little bit of a disadvantage in the chess match because they have to guard people on the perimeter, which is very difficult for them to do.”
On ball handling:
“We were not assertive, not passionate. They picked up our dribble a lot. The times that we tried to put the ball in the post, we threw soft passes that were deflected or stolen, and weren’t in sync. They did a good job of swarming to the basketball. When you’re tentative and you don’t move the ball around with veracity, mentally and physically you’re back on your heels and you’re going to turn the ball over.”
On having open looks in the last minute of play:
Although they were good open looks, the shots were rushed and we were trying to swing for the fences rather than play the game. There was plenty of time to get a basket and extend the game, make them make some free throws. We have to learn that. That’s a little bit of inexperience. I think that even if we had made those shots, we would not be in a situation where we could start dictating. That is primarily inexperience and defensively, we couldn’t [put up] consecutive stops.”
Liberty Head Coach Ritchie McKay
Opening Comments:
“I was really proud of our young guys. Especially Jessie Sanders, who didn’t play so well last week, to have eight assists and no turnovers against a really good ACC backcourt. I was really happy for him. I thought he made a huge difference in the game. Obviously, Anthony Smith, Seth Curry, and Kyle Ohman scored a bunch of points as well. I really like the way we practiced this week. You should have seen the way we played last Tuesday. It was about 180 degrees from the way we played today, and I think we were very fortunate because we caught Virginia at a good time. Thet were 3-0 and pretty confident. When you watch the tape of the actual (UNC Asheville) game, you could get sick; so I think we may have shown them that we were better than what they thought we were. Dave (Leitao) had them prepared and I like some of the things that they did. (To play them) before they played Syracuse and Minnesota, I thought we fell (in the schedule) at a good time. That doesn’t take away from our players, however, I thought we played very well and played together.”
On matching the players:
“You know when you play VMI, and you get bombed by all those threes, so you start worrying about the three. I think we made a couple early and then they went smaller. They have a really good team. I mentioned to somebody before the game that Sylven Landesberg is really good, and, when you don’t have Sean (Singletary) and those other guys anymore, I felt like they have stepped up, made plays, and kind of found their own identity. We were just fortunate because we made a couple of shots, we made them play from behind, and then they had to match up with us, and that was at least to our advantage on the offensive end.”
On steps Liberty took after the UNC Asheville game:
“Well, the thing we didn’t do was berate our guys because it was a complete aberration from what we have seen in practice. It’s a group that has good character and good unselfishness. I read a quote by (Texas Tech football coach) Mike Leach and he talked about the game against Oklahoma. He said they just tried too hard and didn’t make simple plays. We really got bland this past week from just trying to get our guys to refocus and just play together. We don’t have to make home run plays. It’s November.”
On the youth of the team:
“A win like this gives us a little confidence. We have great respect for this program. It’s a basketball program. Dave and his staff are doing a tremendous job, so I think we feel really good about having a chance to come in here and get a win on the road early. We’re 0-1 in our league and we still have a lot of work to do with some pretty good teams coming up on the schedule as well.”