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VIRGINIA BASKETBALL
Postgame Quotes
Virginia 90, Longwood 61
Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao
Opening Statement:
“Coming off the long break, one of our concerns was not having the right rhythm that we needed. We have been a victim of that before. We made more good plays today. It is a point to build from. There still are some key areas to improve on, but we’ll take that, move on and build some consistency.”
On Assane Sene:
“(He’s got) activity, length he’s still got to get stronger and more seasoned, but coming into the season we wanted to rely on him for some post touches once he got more confidence. He is active on defense, although he still makes some freshman mistakes.”
On building a big lead:
“Longwood has that ability to come back. We got an early lead and worked to maintain it and build on it. We talked at halftime that they would come back. We had some lulls but overall were able to maintain and build on the lead.”
On Sylven Landesberg:
“He’s a slasher more than a catch and shoot player. He’s an attacker and has quickly learned in college that you can’t always shoot over top of players. He has been using his body to get to the free throw line more often.”
On the upcoming game with Auburn:
“We needed to have something to get our confidence up, and now we have that and need to build on it. Tomorrow is important, Friday is important. Our effort level Saturday and the crowd’s energy will be important. It takes that kind of effort to beat a good team like that.”
Longwood Head Coach Mike Gillian
Opening Statement:
“Virginia did a good job of preparing for us. They handled the ball well and got off to a good start, which helped to carry them through. We’ve been in a big hole before this season and dug ourselves out like at Virginia Tech. We had a nice stretch where we got it under double digits, but then we took some ill-advised shots.”
“We are at a point in our program where we do what we do because we are good enough and competitive. But tonight we took some ill-advised shots and when we go to the locker room, instead of being down nine, we’re down 15.”
“We try to force teams into mistakes and then hope to capitalize. We hope that the turnover margin will help offset our lack of size. But when (your opponent) shoots over 50 percent and gets a lot more rebounds, it’s not a good sign for us. We have to limit those second-chance points in order to be successful.”
On Sylven Landesberg
“He’s a very talented player. When most players get to college, there is a big learning curve except for a select few. We did a good job of guarding him, but he did well in getting to the free throw line.”