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Virginia 74, Hampton 48
Dec. 23, 2008
Coaches Quotes
Virginia head coach Dave Leitao:
Opening Statement:
“Any time you go into a holiday, you want to do it on a good note. I thought over the course of the game that we evened ourselves out in terms of not having as many highs and lows. We started off really quick sharing the basketball, pushing the basketball, and it led to some high percentage shots that we fortunately made. Our defense was sound enough to get us the ball back.”
“Individually I thought Mike (Scott) came back and rebounded the way he has the potential to do. We’ve got to try as best we can to get him to continue to do that mentally because he can do it physically. Assane (Sene) again was a presence defensively and I think we’ve just got to continue to get him more growth.”
“I thought Sammy (Zeglinski) did a much better job of leading us today and having guys understand what he wants from them. “
“I thought the overall contributions were good and it gives us an opportunity to take a day or so off and enjoy our families and the gifts that God has given us and then come back and get ready for Georgia Tech.”
On the play of Mustapha Farrakhan:
“He played loose, confidently. He played through the good and the bad. He came in and missed the layup but it didn’t really affect him and he guarded, I thought, pretty well. And as a result, he played confidently and when he does that he’s as good a shooter as we’ve got on the team. He was able to get open looks and knock them down. He attacked as well and I was pleased with the way he played mentally more than even physically to be honest with you.”
Thoughts on 10 blocked shots by Virginia:
“I think just being able to present a presence at the basket is important and it’s something we haven’t had since I’ve been here. If we can continue to grow in that area, then it’s another weapon defensively that we can use to our advantage.”
Hampton head coach Kevin Nickelberry:
Overall thoughts on the game:
“The problem is, I was pretty sure that Dave (Leitao) would get them ready to play. I’m not sure if I need to either fire myself or my assistants. This is not a team I’ve seen on tape the last two weeks. We saw a team that was probably underachieving, we probably were overachieving and we went out into a fight and got hit in the face. “
“They played with a purpose. When they didn’t get good shots they really attacked the glass against us. They didn’t allow us to get out and do the things we wanted to do. We pride ourselves on defense and I’m not sure for three years we’ve been taken apart this (much).”
“We thought we could take advantage of their freshmen. They had struggled in some of their games. But (Zeglinski) was a lot better today than he was the last couple of games. (Mike) Scott was a man in there, he really was a man. On tape we had said on the scouting report, if you hit him early, box him out early, he won’t keep chasing. We hit him two or three times and he kept chasing.”
“I’m not sure if this is the Virginia team we’ll see all year, but tonight they were a hungry team. They were a lot hungrier than I’ve seen them in the last couple games. “