Postgame Quotes
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VIRGINIA BASKETBALL
Postgame Quotes
Boston College 80, Virginia 70
Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao
On Virginia’s performance:
“I’m obviously extremely disappointed in our performance today. We spent the last two days preparing both on the court and mentally, understanding what it took to be successful, and I think those first 20 minutes we were absolutely out of it. We continued to get ourselves in a deep hole.”
On how he selected the lineup for the start of the second half:
“[I chose] five guys that I thought would play with the most energy. They played the whole half. It wasn’t fatigue, they were more energized than I think we were in the first half.”
On the low number of substitutions in the second half:
“I wasn’t really interested in playing anybody who wasn’t going to play the game in the right way.”
On the team’s energy during the game:
“Shooting is a skill; dribbling is a skill; but most people don’t understand that playing hard and passionately is a skill. We haven’t used that skill the way we’ve needed to.”
On improvements the team needs to make:
“I think energy. You’ve got to start with that passion and playing hard. Then you have to piece it together from there.”
Boston College Head Coach Al Skinner
On the game:
“Their zone defense was somewhat effective. We didn’t execute as well as we should have. We did not recognize the opportunities that were dealt to us. We were playing very patient, very passive on the offensive end. We weren’t attacking like we were initially and like we have normally. We normally are a pretty good zone offense team. It was very disturbing to see us play so passively, but I understand a little bit why because we had the lead.”
On Sylven Landesberg:
“He’s an outstanding player. He’s good going to the basket. He finishes very well, and he just kept attacking the basket. He put the ball up, put his head down, and drove to the basket. [He] did a good job of getting to the free throw line – excellent free throw shooter. So, if they’re going to spread the floor like that he could be pretty effective.”
On Rakim Sanders’ game tonight:
“Rakim is obviously, physically, probably as gifted as any two-guard in the league, and when he decides to make up his mind that he wants the ball and he wants to make a presence, particularly on the interior, I’m not sure if there are many guards in this league that can stop that. Of course, he’s a very capable three-point shooter. So I mean it’s really up to him how good he would like to be. Again, physically, he’s got the tools from an offensive standpoint. He can score down low, he can get the ball to the perimeter, he can take it to the basket. So I think he’s a pretty tough out. They got their hands full tonight.”
On the importance of the wins against Virginia Tech and UVa to Tyrese Rice and Boston College:
“It’s important for BC. I don’t know how important it is to him, but it’s important to BC because we struggled here early and let a couple games get away in the league, and we’re trying to bounce back and put ourselves back in the middle and get involved in the mix. You’ve got to ask him on a personal level how important it is to him, but to BC it’s extremely important. And again, anytime you come on the road, I don’t care who you are playing, if you get a win, you’ve got to be extremely happy. We all know what happened with Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, everybody’s capable of winning in this league. We’re really pleased about the fact that we were able to come in here and get a win because it’s not easy going on the road and getting wins.”
Virginia junior guard Solomon Tat
On what Coach Leitao said at halftime when he told you that you were going to go start the second half:
“We really weren’t sure we were going with the smaller group. He just wanted us to play aggressive, so he picked a couple of guys because he wanted us to play zone and just play with passion. That’s why we were all out there, the five guys that were on the floor.”
On what you bring to the team that may be lacking when you’re not on the court:
“It’s more of a mentality. Sometimes the guys out there tend to play kind of passive, so I come out there to pick their energy up and help them out with the defense.”
Virginia freshman guard Sylven Landesberg
On the difference between the two halves:
“In the second half we just came out with a lot of passion. Every time we scored a bucket or made a defensive play, there was just a lot of energy. We felt it. I felt it in the stadium. That really helped us pick up our game.”
On what changed from the first half to the second half that made you so aggressive:
“At halftime, Coach Leitao said we had to stop playing passive and start playing aggressive, so I took that mindset and started attacking the basket more.”